MS NOW reporter Akayla Gardner asked if Trump wanted only supportive outlets in the press pool; he said he loved a free press, then told her “Quiet.” CNN was barred from covering his trip; LindellTV and Real America’s Voices were named to the secondary TV pool.
LindellTV is owned by Trump ally Mike Lindell. The exclusion followed Trump’s earlier move to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters from White House coverage. After their credentials were disabled, the outlets sued and a judge ordered the ban reversed, though the reversal came after a significant delay.
Gardner later told host Jacob Soboroff that Trump pointed at her while calling the outlets “fake news,” singling her out as an example. Soboroff called the contrast between Trump’s free-press declaration and CNN’s exclusion “incredibly childish.”
