A New York Times reporter claimed Friday that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign blocked him from gaining access to the billionaire at an event in Iowa where several other news outlets were present.
According to his first-hand account of the incident, posted to the Times’ website, Trip Gabriel was removed by police from a popular pizza joint where Trump stopped shortly after a campaign rally in Urbandale, Iowa. While Gabriel was ejected from the event, he claims nearly two-dozen other reporters and camera crews were able to remain inside.
“I opened my briefcase and extended my arms for a Secret Service screening, then entered the restaurant crowded with Trump supporters in campaign T-shirts. There was a knot of TV cameras and still photographers, who had been bused to the location,” Gabriel wrote Friday.
“Barely a minute later, I was ejected from the restaurant by a Trump staff member and a local police officer,” he added.
Gabriel claims he was told the event was “private” and that orders to remove him came from two of Trump’s top campaign staffers in the Hawkeye State. He presumed his removal was due to an article he published earlier this week that criticized the candidate’s ground operation in the earliest voting state.
“The article ran under the headline ‘Donald Trump’s Iowa Ground Game Seems to Be Missing a Coach,'” Gabriel noted Friday.
Trump has previously blocked The Des Moines Register and The Huffington Post from covering campaign events of his. The Republican presidential front-runner’s campaign also requires that reporters be pre-approved before gaining access to his rallies.
