President Donald Trump’s decision to ban reporters from MS NOW, CNN and Politico from White House grounds is dividing Republicans on Capitol Hill, with some GOP lawmakers jumping to the president’s defense and others expressing rare unease with the new restrictions.
Some of Trump’s most vocal allies said the president was justified in barring news organizations whose coverage he dislikes, while other Republicans — accustomed to the far more freewheeling press access on Capitol Hill — said the White House had gone too far.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, a Republican Party loyalist who loves to post up in Capitol hallways and deliver his folksy quotes, told reporters this week that while he agreed with the president’s “diagnosis” that the media is biased, “I don’t agree with the cure.”
“I don’t agree with cancel culture. I didn’t before when it was being practiced under the Democrats, and I don’t agree with it now,” Kennedy told MS NOW. “You have to treat everybody the same in terms of their access to government.”
His advice to the president: Just don’t talk to the reporters he doesn’t like.
Kennedy wasn’t alone in questioning the president’s decision.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. — who is not seeking re-election — called the president’s decision “silly.”
“I was critical of Pete Hegseth when he did it,” Tillis said, invoking the secretary of defense. “The best antidote for a tough press question is a good answer.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called banning the press a move in “the wrong direction.”
“I am interested in more openness from the White House on all matters, and you’ve got to have somebody with a microphone and a camera in order to translate that,” she said.
And Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, told reporters this week that “you should never ban the press.”
“Just because you don’t like what the press is reporting, or the fact that they wouldn’t call it the Gulf of America or something else like that, that’s not the reason to ban the press,” Simpson said. “The press is what keeps us honest. So I don’t like what they’re doing.”
But there were plenty of Republicans who were fine with Trump kicking journalists out of the White House over coverage he considers unfair — even as the three news organizations are challenging the ban in federal court on First Amendment grounds.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., was among the most forceful defenders. Without providing any evidence of the behavior, Johnson accused the press of “literally aiding and abetting” the U.S.’ enemies and being “so fricking negative” about the Iran war.
“So I can understand why the president of the United States doesn’t want the news outlets that are aiding and abetting our enemies into his workspace,” he said.
“Was it Kaitlan Collins who talked to Trump about, you know, two-thirds of Americans believe Iran’s winning? Well, that’s because that’s what you’re telling them,” he said, referring to the CNN journalist.
Other Republicans backed the president in more muted ways.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he would “defer” to the president.
“To me, the White House should probably be able to determine who, what cameras are in the White House,” he said. “But I guess it’ll be litigated.”
Pressed by NBC News over the weekend, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said he didn’t believe the White House was violating the Constitution.
“I believe the press has an obligation to report fairly,” Barrasso said.
He also pivoted to the decision by a private company — Twitter then, and X now — to ban Trump from its platform after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. At the time, Twitter cited the “risk of further incitement of violence” as the reason.
“I didn’t see people come to his defense. So, it goes both ways,” Barrasso said.
On ABC News, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana — the No.2 Republican in the U.S. House — defended the president by drawing a strained comparison to a White House press credentialing change that occurred under then-President Joe Biden.
Biden, Scalise alleged, “removed the press credentials from over 400 different agencies.”
While the Biden administration’s update to credentialing rules in 2023 — requiring reporters to live near Washington, D.C., to have visited the White House within the last six months, and to hold a press pass with the Supreme Court or Congress — did lead to hundreds of reporters who didn’t meet the criteria losing their “hard” passes, reporters were still able to access the White House with day passes.
Most of the reporters who didn’t meet the requirements simply chose not to renew their hard passes. Only one person — who did not meet all of the news criteria — was denied a hard pass.
The distinction is central to the legal fight over Trump’s ban. Courts have upheld viewpoint-neutral credentialing requirements for the White House. But Trump was explicit when discussing his ban that he was barring these journalists because of the general tone of their coverage.
A judge could rule as soon as Wednesday afternoon on the constitutionality of the president’s decision.
As Trump’s press ban makes its way through the legal system, plenty of Republicans tried to avoid answering questions about the president’s decision.
When MS NOW asked Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., if he had any reaction to the president’s media ban, he said, “I really don’t.”
“Thank you for asking. I appreciate it,” he said.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he hoped for a quick resolution — one way or the other.
“I think the courts are going to make quick work of it,” Rounds told MS NOW. “I think the courts are going to step in and they’ll make a decision because it’s an important issue to resolve.”
And other Republicans simply declined to say anything at all.
When MS NOW asked Sen. Marsha Blackburn about the ban, for example, the Tennessee Republican — who is running to be governor — simply ignored the question and walked away.
Mychael Schnell, Lillie Boudreaux and Syedah Asghar contributed to this report.
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