First Lady Melania Trump has extended an apparent olive branch to CNN as the network remains locked in a dispute with her husband.
President Donald Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House last Friday, accusing the outlets of publishing “fake news.”
The move prompted Secret Service agents to confiscate journalists’ press passes and led the affected outlets to abandon coverage plans for Trump’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly this week.
CNN had been assigned to send a reporter and camera crew to the UN before being removed from the White House traveling press pool on Sunday.
However, the First Lady’s Office approved CNN’s request to cover Melania Trump in Manhattan this week, according to Betsy Klein, the network’s senior White House reporter.
“Interestingly, we do have one new data point, which is that my credential to cover an event with the First Lady, on the sidelines of the United Nations tomorrow, has been approved,” Klein said Monday.
A source familiar with the matter told Our News Outlet that CNN had been credentialed to cover an announcement the First Lady is expected to make Tuesday at the St. Regis hotel.
The announcement concerns her “Fostering the Future Together” initiative, an effort Melania is expected to highlight several times during her visit to New York for the UN.
Melania Trump’s team approved CNN’s credentials to cover a Tuesday event with the First Lady, despite the White House ban on the network
CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein said she had been approved to cover a First Lady event on the sidelines of the UN. She was escorted from the White House on Saturday after Trump’s ban on CNN took effect
“I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico,” Trump wrote Friday as he announced the ban
The First Lady’s decision to allow CNN access sharply contrasts with her husband’s actions against the network.
“I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico,” Trump wrote Friday in announcing the ban.
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“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report fiction and lies when they’re covering the President of the United States,” he added.
The next day, reporters from the banned outlets were refused entry when they arrived at the White House for work.
Some journalists also had their press passes taken by Secret Service agents.
Trump renewed his defense of the ban Monday, arguing that his decision did not amount to “an assault on the free press.”
Instead, he wrote that he was “instituting an assault on the fake news, some that has grown like cancer in our beloved United States of America.”
Following the ban, the five major US broadcast networks — Fox News, CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC — said they would not send a camera crew to cover Trump at the UN after the White House removed CNN from the trip. The networks operate together as the TV pool.
White House broadcast tents stood empty Monday after Trump’s ban
CNN, MS NOW and Politico, the three outlets targeted by Trump, said they would challenge the administration’s decision in court.
“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the outlets said in a statement Monday.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” they added.
“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
US District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, is overseeing the case and has dealt with a similar dispute before.
In 2018, Kelly ordered the White House to reinstate the press credentials of CNN journalist Jim Acosta after his pass was revoked following a heated confrontation with Trump.
