Donald Trump has blocked Washington Post reporters from receiving press credentials to his campaign events, citing the publication’s “incredibly inaccurate coverage.”
“Based on the incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting of the record setting Trump campaign, we are hereby revoking the press credentials of the phony and dishonest Washington Post,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee wrote on his Facebook page Monday.
Trump has previously denied press credentials to reporters and publications his campaign deems unfair, including Politico and the Des Moines Register.
Last month, Washington Post editor and veteran journalist Bob Woodward revealed that the paper had assigned 20 of its reporters to begin investigating “every phase of [Trump’s] life” as the billionaire prepared for the general election.
The Post’s executive editor Marty Baron described the move by Trump as “nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press.”
“When coverage doesn’t correspond to what the candidate wants it to be, then a news organization is banished,” Baron said in a statement released shortly after the announcement by Trump. “The Post will continued to voer Donald Trump as it has all along – honorably, honestly, accurately, energetically, and unflinchingly.”
“We’re proud of our coverage, and we’re going to keep at it,” Baron said.
