CNN says its reporters were barred from joining press pool on Air Force One

CNN reported its journalists have been barred from joining the press pool traveling with President Trump this weekend. They were set to board Air Force One Saturday to cover his visit to Knoxville for a college football game.

The outlet had been scheduled to serve as this weekend’s TV press pooler — a rotating group of journalists who cover Trump when space is limited and share information with other networks. But the White House announced Friday in a note to the press that CNN would no longer fill this role — the latest swipe in President Trump’s ongoing media outlet ban dispute.

The note did not list another outlet replacing CNN. If the White House doesn’t replace the network with another, there would be no television pool coverage of Trump’s Tennessee visit.

“That’s the system that allows the networks to share video of the president with the whole country. If they aren’t there, the pool can’t function,” Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox anchor and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association president, told CNN.

The move comes after Trump attempted to ban CNN, along with MS NOW and Politico, from accessing the White House earlier this week. A federal judge ordered the administration to immediately restore press credentials for reporters at the outlets, finding that the ban likely violated their constitutional due process rights.

On Thursday, journalists attempting to enter the White House grounds were initially denied entry before being allowed onto the grounds in the afternoon.

MS NOW and CNN journalists also reported Thursday they were denied access to the state dinner arrival at the White House during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S., which was a precredentialed event.

The dispute caused the other four major TV news networks — CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox News — to boycott the press pool in solidarity with CNN, which had previously been in the rotation. Though the judge’s ruling came Thursday, these outlets didn’t return until a day later, saying they wanted to be sure the White House would acknowledge the decision when it came to TV coverage.