Vance Defends Trump’s White House Media Restrictions
Vice President JD Vance defended President Donald Trump’s decision to restrict CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House access, while rejecting the characterization that the outlets were being barred from reporting on the administration.
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Vance said the administration was denying the three outlets special access to the White House rather than preventing them from covering the government.
Vance argued that the outlets could still report on the administration, speak with officials and use publicly available information despite losing access to the White House grounds.
He made the comments Monday, September 21, while speaking to reporters as he traveled to North Carolina to campaign with Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley.
The comments came as CNN, MS NOW and Politico announced plans to sue the Trump administration, arguing that the restrictions violate their First Amendment rights.
JD Vance Says Trump Is Targeting Outlets He Calls “Far-Left Propaganda”
Vance said Trump was responding to what he described as “far-left propaganda,” arguing that a Republican White House should not provide special access to outlets it considers unfair.
“Now, why on God’s green earth would Donald Trump be expected to give Politico special access when nobody in the media expected the Biden administration or the Obama administration to give Breitbart special access?” Vance said.
He said the policy was about what he described as basic fairness.
Vance said Trump was “not banning media outlets,” while pointing to the outlets’ coverage and arguing that much of their reporting on the administration had been negative. He said such coverage did not accurately represent public opinion.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico announced Monday that they would file a federal lawsuit seeking to restore their White House access. The outlets said the government should not decide what the press reports or publishes and argued that the restrictions violated their First Amendment rights.
Trump announced Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be barred from the White House, accusing the outlets of reporting what he called “fake news.” Reporters from the three organizations were subsequently denied access to the White House grounds.
JD Vance Defends Limits on White House Access
Asked how the policy fits with his past statements about free speech, Vance said the outlets still have the ability to report on the administration.
“They can still report on the Trump White House,” he said. “They can still get the public reports. They can still, of course, talk to people in the administration and outside the administration.”
Vance said the distinction was between ordinary reporting access and what he described as special access inside the White House.
“What the president has said is, we’re not going to give you special access inside the White House,” Vance said.
He compared Politico’s coverage of Trump with Breitbart’s coverage during previous Democratic administrations, arguing that the White House’s decision was about fairness.
“The way that I think about it is, if you go back to the Biden administration or the Obama administration, compare, let’s say, Politico to Breitbart,” Vance said.
Trump Rejects Free-Press Criticism
Trump rejected the characterization of the restrictions as an attack on the press in a Truth Social post Monday, saying the White House was targeting what he called “FAKE NEWS.”
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish,” Trump wrote. “It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS.”
Trump also accused the outlets of being “corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control” and described them as a threat to national security.
Vance said Trump could restore special access if the outlets changed their conduct, indicating that access could return if they began operating in a manner the administration considered fair.