White House: Kaitlan Collins Was Barred For Her Behavior, Not Cohen Questions – By Pritha Paul (ibtimes.com) / July 26 2018
Most media outlets have stood up in solidarity against CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins reportedly being banned from a White House “open press” event in the Rose Garden, following her demeanor in a separate press event in the oval office shortly before.
While Collins claimed it was her tough line of questions directed at President Donald Trump during the press pool session in the Oval Office ahead of the president’s trade meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker — which included queries regarding the secret recordings of the POTUS made by his attorney Michael Cohen and Russia — that got her banned, the White House had a different take on it.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement: “At the conclusion of a press event in the Oval Office a reporter shouted questions and refused to leave despite repeatedly being asked to do so.”
“Subsequently, our staff informed her she was not welcome to participate in the next event, but made clear that any other journalist from her network could attend. She said it didn’t matter to her because she hadn’t planned to be there anyway. To be clear, we support a free press and ask that everyone be respectful of the presidency and guests at the White House,” she added.
Collins, however, maintained her invitation to the press event at the Rose Garden was revoked because the White House found her line of questioning “inappropriate.” Following her ban, CNN Communications tweeted out the list of questions asked by Collins in the Oval Office:
Statement regarding CNN press access at today’s White House event. We demand better. pic.twitter.com/s4lSTcHVak
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) July 25, 2018
After the press session in the Oval Office concluded — with Trump choosing to ignore every question asked by Collins — the CNN reporter said she was asked to go to newly appointed White House Communications Director Bill Shine. Sanders was also present at Shine’s office when Collins arrived.
Collins said Shine told her she was “dis-invited from the press availability in the Rose Garden” because “they thought the questions that I posed to President Trump were inappropriate and inappropriate for that venue.”
“I told them that is often our only chance to ask the president questions,” Collins said on CNN Wednesday. “Those questions are questions any reporter would have asked, and I was there to represent all the networks, and therefore ask about the questions of the day.”
The White House banned Kaitlan Collins, a White House reporter for CNN, from a press event after Collins asked President Trump questions at an Oval Office photo op https://t.co/7QN8CoZ7sp pic.twitter.com/hWspq7W1yy
— CNN (@CNN) July 25, 2018
White House’s decision to ban Collins was criticized by multiple agencies including The White House Correspondents Association (WHCA).
“We strongly condemn the White House’s misguided and inappropriate decision today to bar one of our members from an open press event after she asked questions they did not like,” said WHCA president Olivier Knox, the Hill reported. “This type of retaliation is wholly inappropriate, wrong-headed, and weak. It cannot stand.”
“Reporters asking questions of powerful government officials, up to and including the President, helps hold those people accountable. In our republic, the WHCA supports the prerogative of all reporters to do their jobs without fear of reprisal from the government,” he added.
The White House News Photographers Association also issued a similar statement:
Even CNN’s rival news network, FOX News joined in the outcry against Collins’ ban from the press event.
Jay Wallace, president of FOX News, Shine’s former employer, said in a statement: “We stand in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press,” while Fox News host Brett Baer tweeted: “As a member of the White House Press pool- @FoxNews stands firmly with @CNN on this issue and the issue of access.”
CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins was banned from a White House “open press” event in the Rose Garden. In this photo, Collins (3rd R) asks a question during a press conference by U.S. President Donald Trump and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2017. Photo: Getty Images/ Mandel Ngan
