TRUMP / CNN / MS NOW / POLITICO
"I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW, and Politico from the White House as a result of their constant "reporting" FAKE NEWS! Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
"Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was "banning" Plaintiffs from the White House." — — Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, on the national-security rationale, September 24
Friday September 18, the post. Over the weekend, deactivated hard passes. Monday, a lawsuit. Tuesday, letters from the White House recasting the ban as a preliminary determination with a Friday 5 p.m. deadline to contest it — a First Amendment problem converted into a form to fill out. Wednesday, a hearing. 1:30 a.m. Thursday, a Trump-appointed judge calls it likely unconstitutional, orders the passes back, refuses to stay his own order, sets bond at one dollar. That is a clean win and it was covered like one. Then Saturday, with the order in force, CNN was kept off Air Force One on its scheduled turn as pool network — so the remedy restored the badge and not the seat. Sunday the Attorney General went on ABC and said access is "a privilege, not a right," that the president "has every right to decide who flies on his plane," and that one-sided reporting is "a national security problem." Raddatz told him the president said nothing about national security when he announced it. He said he would not get into what the judge says. The order expires October 8, five weeks before the midterms. And the only forward-looking sentence in the original post — other outlets to follow — has not been withdrawn, has not been litigated, and has not been asked about once.