After CNN reported Friday that its personnel had been barred from traveling aboard Air Force One for President Donald Trump’s trip to Tennessee on Saturday, the network said two Trump-friendly outlets would cover the president instead.
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Appearing on Friday’s edition of “Anderson Cooper 360°,” CNN White House reporter Alayna Treene said that LindellTV, founded by Trump ally Mike Lindell, and Real America’s Voice will serve as secondary pool outlets for the president’s trip.
The Associated Press reported that Real America’s Voice had directly replaced CNN in the White House pool, citing White House guidance.
Treene said that Saturday was CNN’s day to provide television pool coverage for the president.
“As you can see, I am talking to you right now from the White House. So we were allowed into the White House. But the question of the pool for CNN was a bit murkier,” Treene said.
Treene said that for now she believes the network still has access to the White House grounds, but added this latest move by the administration is a “new turn in this legal case.”
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This follows action from U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly, who temporarily struck down the Trump administration’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House early Thursday. Kelly said the ban was likely unconstitutional and ordered access to be restored to the outlets.
The administration initially defied Kelly’s order on Thursday, but relented minutes before the Justice Department would have been forced to respond to Kelly’s request for an explanation as to why it was doing so.
An outside lawyer representing CNN had previously told Tapper that he believed the judge’s order applied to access to the White House pool.
It is unclear how the White House’s latest move will affect the three outlets’ ongoing litigation.
Watch Treene’s conversation with Tapper from Friday night here:
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