The White House decision to revoke the on-premise press credentials of CNN’s Jim Acosta is another escalation in President Trump’s long-running feud with the news outlet, but it’s not the first time CNN and its reporters have had their access blocked.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday night that Acosta’s “hard pass,” which gives reporters permanent access to the White House grounds, was suspended because she would not “tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern.”
Acosta had a heated exchange with Trump earlier in the day during a press conference, and when a young White House staffer attempted to take his microphone and give it to another reporter, Acosta gripped it tighter and moved to block the staffer from taking it. He later said it was a “lie” to say that he touched the staffer.
Less than six months ago, in July, CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins was told by White House communications staff she would not be allowed to attend an event in the Rose Garden after she had shouted out questions to Trump during a “pool spray” of a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
“They thought the questions that I posed to President Trump were inappropriate and inappropriate for that venue,” said Collins at the time, referring to questions she had called out to Trump about the legal troubles facing his longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Before that, in February 2017, when Sean Spicer was still press secretary, he hosted a gathering of news outlets, including the rotating pool report of both print and broadcast journalists, but excluded several major publications, including CNN. Among the others not allowed into Spicer’s office were reporters for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Politico.
Most national news outlets with a presence in Washington have sided with CNN or other publications that are rebuffed by the White House.
But the White House has also stood its ground.
Many journalists on Wednesday night criticized Sarah Sanders’ announcement that Jim Acosta would have his pass suspended, insisting that video did not show any real physical incident between Acosta and the staffer, which the White House has said was an intern.
Sanders, however, rejected the criticism.
“We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass,” she said late Wednesday night on Twitter, including a video clip of Acosta from the press conference earlier. “We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior clearly documented in this video.”
