WASHINGTON (AP) — A CNN
correspondent said she was barred from attending an open press event at the
White House on Wednesday because of questions she asked President Donald Trump
earlier in the day.
Kaitlan Collins and her employer, CNN, say the White House denied
Collins access to Trump's Rose Garden event with the European Commission
president because officials found her earlier questions
"inappropriate."
Collins had served as a representative of the television networks
during an earlier pool spray in the Oval Office. She and a handful of other
reporters peppered the president with questions, including many focused on his
former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
CNN on Tuesday obtained and aired a secret audio recording that
captured Trump and Cohen discussing a potential payment to a former Playboy
model who claims she had an affair with Trump.
It is standard protocol for reporters to ask the president
questions at such events, and Trump, unlike some of his predecessors, often
engages.
Collins says she was later reprimanded by press secretary Sarah
Huckabee Sanders and communications chief Bill Shine and told she could not
attend the Rose Garden event, which was open to all other members of the
credentialed media.
CNN, in a statement, objected to the move, calling it
"retaliatory in nature" and "not indicative of an open and free
press."
"Just because the White House is uncomfortable with a
question regarding the news of the day doesn't mean the question isn't relevant
and shouldn't be asked," the network said.
The White House Correspondents' Association also issued a harshly
worded statement condemning "the White House's misguided and inappropriate
decision today to bar one of our members from an open press event after she
asked questions they did not like."
"This type of retaliation is wholly inappropriate,
wrong-headed, and weak. It cannot stand," said the group's president,
Olivier Knox.
And Fox News President Jay Wallace said, "We stand in strong
solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of
a free and unfettered press."
Sanders, in her own statement, defended the decision and claimed
that Collins had "shouted questions and refused to leave despite
repeatedly being asked to do so" at the end of the Oval Office event.
Numerous reporters, including many from the European Union
delegation, had been shouting questions, and, as usual, it took some time for
the pack of journalists to file out the doors.
Sanders said the White House made clear that other CNN journalists
were invited to the next event, just not Collins.
"To be clear, we support a free press and ask that everyone
be respectful of the presidency and guests at the White House," she said.
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