The White House press pool on Monday announced it is suspending its televised coverage of President Donald Trump after the White House pulled CNN from its assigned pool coverage duties this week.
“Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Fox News’ Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, acting chair of the TV pool consortium, said in a note to TV pool members on Monday.
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties,” Boughton wrote. “There will be no replacement pool put in place.”
CNN was scheduled to provide TV coverage of Trump this week for the White House pool, but the Trump administration removed the network as its primary pooler following the president’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.
Boughton said the other pool coverage, which includes print and radio, would continue as normal. “We will provide updates as this situation develops,” he added.
CNN had been scheduled to provide TV coverage of Trump’s address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City this week.
The White House press pool is a nearly century-old system in which major news networks assign a small group of journalists to travel with the president in effort to equally distribute the cost and responsibility of coverage. Space is limited aboard Air Force One and at various events the president attends, and such travel is very expensive, so the pool enables all members of the press corps to receive a daily record of the presidency.
Five networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC — assign the daily rotation of pool coverage. Monday was supposed to be the start of CNN’s week, but when the White House sent out Trump’s daily press schedule, there was no primary TV pooler listed.
CNN’s removal came after Trump on Friday announced he would ban the network, MS NOW and Politico from covering the White House over what he described as their coordinated effort to “purposely tell negative stories” about him and his administration.
Journalists from those outlets were denied entry to the White House on Saturday and had their press credentials confiscated as part of the ban. The news organizations on Monday said they are suing Trump and several top administration officials for blocking their reporters’ access to the White House, alleging that the ban constitutes viewpoint discrimination that violates the First Amendment.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump denied that the White House is “instituting an assault on the Free Press,” insisting instead that the “assault” is on the “FAKE NEWS,” which he called a “Cancer” in the U.S. and a “threat to our National Security.” The president gave no examples to back up his claim.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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