Trump tells CNN’s Collins ‘you shouldn’t be here’ on way into UN

President Trump on Tuesday brushed aside questions from CNN Chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins amid his push to block the network and two other outlets from covering the White House.

During the president’s arrival at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York City Tuesday morning, Trump said he was “surprised” to see the journalist, according to video footage shared by CSPAN.

“You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t going to be covering me,” Trump said as Collins shouted a question about new CNN polling that showed rising dissatisfaction among the American public with his administration’s military operations against Iran.

Following this exchange with the president, Collins noted in an appearance on “CNN News Central” that she and other reporters present were credentialed under the UN.

Collins added that the network “never said we were not going to cover the president.”

“We will continue to cover the president and his speech and as he meets with world leaders today, just not with a TV camera from one of the five major networks in the room,” she added.

On Monday, CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a lawsuit to challenge the president’s decision to revoke White House press credentials for the three news outlets. It is not clear what led the president to issue this ban.

In the filing , attorneys for the three outlets accused Trump of targeting them because he “dislikes the content of their coverage of him and his administration.”

“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the lawyers wrote in the complaint.

TV networks pulled their participation in the presidential pool in solidarity with the impacted outlets. The pool travels with the president and is responsible for capturing and sharing footage from his public appearances.

In a rare joint statement, pool members Fox News Media, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and CNN said, “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government.”

“No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting,” they added.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the president’s media ban during a Monday morning appearance on NBC News’s “TODAY” show.

“I don’t think the White House is saying they’re not able to cover the President,” Rubio told host Craig Melvin.

“What he is arguing is, why should I have these people? What right do they have to be embedded in this building?” the secretary added. “They can cover the White House; they just can’t have a desk there.”