First Lady Melania Trump has extended a rare gesture toward CNN as the network remains embroiled 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 what he described as “fake news.”
The decision prompted Secret Service agents to confiscate journalists’ press credentials and forced the affected news organizations to abandon plans to cover Trump during his trip to the United Nations General Assembly this week.
CNN had been scheduled to send a reporter and camera crew to the UN. However, the network was removed from the White House travel press pool on Sunday.
Despite the ban, the First Lady’s Office approved CNN’s request to cover Melania in Manhattan this week, according to Betsy Klein, the network’s senior White House correspondent.
“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 granted access to cover an announcement Melania is expected to make Tuesday at the St. Regis hotel.
The event is linked to her “Fostering the Future Together” initiative, a program she is expected to highlight several times during her New York visit for the UN General Assembly.
Melania Trump’s team approved CNN’s credentials to cover a Tuesday event with the First Lady, despite the White House ban against the network.
CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein said she had been cleared to attend an event with the First Lady on the sidelines of the UN. She was escorted from the White House on Saturday after Trump’s ban 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.
Media giants sue Trump over White House press ban
Melania’s decision to allow CNN to cover her event sharply contrasts with her husband’s escalating confrontation with 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 in announcing the move Friday.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Travis Barker’s Ex Shanna Moakler Praises ‘Honest’ Boyfriend Greg Vaughan After Reflecting on Past Relationship Drama
“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 working for the three outlets were refused entry when they arrived at the White House.
Secret Service agents also seized press passes from some of the journalists.
Trump reinforced the ban Monday while rejecting the suggestion that his actions represented “an assault on the free press.”
Instead, he said he was “instituting an assault on the fake news, some that has grown like cancer in our beloved United States of America.”
Following the White House decision to remove CNN from the UN trip, 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 General Assembly. The networks operate together as the television pool.
Broadcast tents outside the White House stood empty Monday following Trump’s ban.
Media giants sue Trump over White House press ban
CNN, MS NOW and Politico have said they will 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 joint statement Monday.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the statement continued.
“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee from the president’s first term, is overseeing the case.
Kelly has previously ruled on a similar dispute. In 2018, he ordered the White House to restore the press credentials of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after they were revoked following a tense exchange between Acosta and Trump.
