Vice President JD Vance let out a slow, forced laugh after a reporter from a pro-Trump outlet asked him to explain why the White House abruptly announced Trump TV after banning mainstream media outlets CNN, Politico, and MS NOW.
Vance was taking questions at the White House on Tuesday after announcing a fraud crackdown on the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.
The question came from Mary Margaret Olohan, the White House correspondent for the conservative Daily Wire.
“And with that, I have my notes here that I’m supposed to take questions from — CNN and Politico,” Vance said, opening the question period with a joke that seemed to fall flat. “Anybody from CNN, Politico here? No?”
Just days before. President Donald Trump announced he was “banning” reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over coverage he called fake news, according to NBC News. Journalists from the three outlets had their credentials taken at the gate when they tried to enter on Saturday.
The outlets sued the administration on Monday, saying the ban “could not be a more direct assault” on the Constitution, according to CNN.
On Monday, Vance disputed the president’s own framing and insisted there had been no ban on media outlets. At the same time, he defended preventing the outlets from accessing the White House, telling reporters the decision was “totally appropriate” and that the outlets engaged in what he called propaganda.
One of the banned outlets, Politico, profiled the Daily Wire last year as one of eight MAGA outlets gaining ground in the briefing room. A reporter from that outlet asked Vance about Trump TV on Tuesday.
“Can you share a little more about what Trump TV is and why it comes at this point in time?” Olohan asked Vance at the “fraud” event.
Vance paused. Then came a slow, forced “ha ha ha” that did not sound like laughter.
“I’ll let the president speak to Trump TV, and I’m sure there will be forthcoming announcements on that particular topic,” Vance said.
The White House launched Trump TV at 7 p.m. Monday, opening the round-the-clock stream on its YouTube channel with a rerun of Trump’s July 3 speech at Mount Rushmore, according to Time. Kaelan Dorr, the White House’s head of digital strategy, said the channel would show “the Administration’s greatest hits, unfiltered.”
The networks that share pool coverage of the president had suspended it hours before the launch, after the White House pulled CNN from its assigned pool duty, MS NOW reported.
Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, the pool’s acting chair, told members that “the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage.”
At a ribbon-cutting for Trump’s new White House helipad on Monday, the president could not be heard, NBC News reported.
“There is no microphone because the pool cameras aren’t there,” a Newsmax correspondent told viewers.
Vance had come to the podium to announce that his task force is canceling subsidies for about 760,000 Affordable Care Act enrollments, a step expected to save $2.2 billion, the Washington Examiner reported.
Olohan had also asked whether the task force was investigating Planned Parenthood over a Daily Wire report on its billing for cross-sex hormones.
“I haven’t seen the report that you’re referencing,” Vance said. “Mary Margaret, I don’t know the answer to that question.”
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