Many major media outlets and some high-profile Democrats panned President Trump’s abrupt decision to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.
Mr. Trump acted on his latest barrage of threats against the press on Saturday morning, when reporters for the outlets were denied access to the White House and had their badges confiscated.
On Friday evening, Mr. Trump had accused the three outlets of running “purposely negative stories” that were untrue, though he provided no details. The Trump administration has not said what led to his decision, which many First Amendment groups called unconstitutional and unlikely to survive a court challenge.
Condemnation from leading news outlets was nearly universal, including from many that compete directly with CNN, MS NOW and Politico.
“No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use,” said Lauren Easton, a spokeswoman for The Associated Press, which filed suit over restrictions that Mr. Trump tried to impose on its White House access last year.
The New York Times, The Washington Post and press associations also released statements calling the ban an attack on free speech and the free press.
Journalists at Fox News have also taken issue with the ban. One Fox contributor, Ari Fleischer, said conservatives should challenge liberal reporters. “Argue and defeat them,” he said. “Don’t ban them. Or one day they’ll ban us.” Another contributor, Jonathan Turley, said that “barring disfavored media from the White House is a terrible precedent and practice.”
Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox News anchor and the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said on social media that the right to First Amendment protections “does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage.”
“This is about more than the rights of journalists,” Ms. Heinrich added. “It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies and decisions of whoever occupies the nation’s highest office.”
Democrats pounced on Mr. Trump’s ban as an attempt to hide his administration’s shortcomings and to distract voters from other issues. They pointed out that Republicans were heading into a challenging election cycle with high inflation and an unpopular war with Iran started by Mr. Trump, whose support in the polls has sagged.
“Donald Trump just did what dictators throughout history have done,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, said on social media. “This is a democracy. You will not be able to manipulate the news or hide the truth.”
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called on the news media to boycott the White House if Mr. Trump “keeps violating press freedom.” Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said Mr. Trump was censoring the press and trying to “hide his failures.” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that Mr. Trump wanted to “control the flow of information and silence media that might hold them accountable.”
“We will not allow Trump to undermine the First Amendment, the Constitution and our democracy,” Mr. Sanders said on social media. “We will not accept authoritarianism.”
High-ranking Republicans and members of the Trump administration mostly remained quiet on Saturday. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has tried to restrict reporters’ access to the Pentagon, said he “fully supports” a ban on some outlets that he and Mr. Trump have labeled “fake news” for negative coverage.
“They endangered our troops with false stories, leaks, and trafficked in fiction and lies about the President,” Mr. Hegseth said, without providing examples or evidence.
Benny Johnson, a right-wing podcaster, also celebrated the decision to block certain outlets from the White House and pointed out that Mr. Trump had been banned from social media platforms after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
“No one is infringing on their ability to do reporting,” Mr. Johnson said in a social media post.
The campaign of former Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican running with Mr. Trump’s backing for a competitive Senate seat in Michigan, appeared to distance itself from the president’s decision.
Mr. Rogers “held a press conference just this morning with invites out to each of those outlets,” Alyssa Brouillet, a spokeswoman for his campaign, said in a statement. “That tells you where he stands.”
Meghan McCain, a conservative commentator, was more explicit.
“Unpopular opinion in my parts, but it’s insane and a very slippery slope to kick media outlets you don’t like out of the White House,” Ms. McCain said.
Olivia Diaz and Taylor Robinson contributed reporting.
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