News outlets banned from White House seek emergency hearing after being denied entry despite judge’s order
Lawyers for the news outlets President Trump banned from the White House have requested an emergency hearing after several journalists were turned away from the building Thursday morning, in apparent defiance of a federal judge’s order to restore their access.
“This morning journalists from each of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO attempted to enter the White House and were turned away, and Secret Service agents confiscated the hard pass of journalists whose hard passes had not previously been confiscated,” a new court filing read.
Time, the request continued, is “of the essence. CNN is scheduled to the television pool this evening for President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House.”
Timothy Kelly, the federal judge, a Trump appointee who ruled in favor of a CNN journalist similarly barred from the White House during Trump’s first term, issued an order last night ordering the Trump administration to restore access to the three outlets while their case proceeds.
But when outlets with the three outlets showed up for work this morning, they reported that they were turned away by security and had their credentials seized.
Key events
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News outlets banned from White House seek emergency hearing after being denied entry despite judge’s order
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Mary Peltola, Democratic challenger for Alaska’s Senate seat, berated, hurled slurs at staffers: report
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Trump and Xi to talk AI and trade in major Washington meeting
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Israeli, Palestinian leaders set to address the UN, with Netanyahu expected to attack Mamdani
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Politico, CNN, MS Now reporters blocked from White House despite judge’s ruling
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Ahead of talks with Xi, Trump points to AI as major subject
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Trump’s ban on CNN, Politico and MS Now likely unconstitutional, judge rules in restoring temporary access
Mary Peltola, Democratic challenger for Alaska’s Senate seat, berated, hurled slurs at staffers: report
The campaign of Mary Peltola, the former Democratic congresswoman gunning for a prized Republican-held Senate seat in Alaska, has been harmed by the former congresswoman’s alleged pattern of angry outbursts and viciously berating staff members, The New York Times reported on Wednesday evening.
The alleged behavior described in the Times story includes profane tirades, slurs hurled at staff members, and, on one occasion, Peltola shoving an aide.
Times interviews with staff members and text messages the outlet reviewed indicated that Peltola had on several occasions deployed slurs for gay people and people with intellectual disabilities, sometimes aimed at her staffers.
Lately, Peltola’s ire toward staff members has begun to take a toll on her campaign, the Times reported. The outlet heard from sources that the firing of a slate of longtime staffers days before the Alaska primary election was, in part, the product of another angry outburst by Peltola.
The dysfunction allegedly hindered Peltola’s office during her stint in Congress, contributing to an exceptionally high rate of staff turnover.
The Times, however, also found several sources who said they had nothing but positive experiences with Peltola while serving under her.
A spokesman for Peltola’s campaign disputed the conclusion that his boss had displayed any pattern of abuse toward staffers, while acknowledging that she had been grappling with the 2023 deaths of both her mother and her husband, which occurred in quick succession.
“Like any person who has gone through multiple personal tragedies in the span of a few months, Mary sometimes struggled to deal with her grief,” the spokesman, Harry Child, told the Times.
He continued: “Exaggerating and outright lying about moments from the hardest period of her life, and falsely presenting them as a pattern of behavior, is wrong.”
Trump and Xi to talk AI and trade in major Washington meeting
Shannon Ho
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have plenty to cover when they sit down for talks Thursday at the White House.
The US and Chinese leaders are tackling issues like trade irritants, artificial intelligence safeguards and the war in Iran. Trump wants China to use its influence with Iran, while Xi seeks a halt to US arms sales to Taiwan.
A fragile trade truce had been set to expire in November, but the two countries agreed Wednesday to extend it for two months.
This is Xi’s first state visit to the US in more than a decade. Stick with us as we bring you the latest lines.
Israeli, Palestinian leaders set to address the UN, with Netanyahu expected to attack Mamdani
Taz Ali
The third day of the UN General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders is about to kick off in New York City today, with speeches from leaders on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, is expected to devote at least part of his address to attacking Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s progressive mayor who has labeled Netanyahu a war criminal and threatened to arrest him for his country’s killing of civilians in Gaza.
Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador, said he expected Netanyahu’s UN address to resemble a “campaign speech,” leveraging his feud with the mayor of the largest Jewish city outside of Israel to boost his political position at home.
“Maybe he’s thinking, ‘if I can attack Mamdani and attack the Iranians, somebody who was wavering between voting for me and voting for (Gadi) Eisenkot may decide to vote for me’,” Oren told Reuters, referring to Netanyahu’s main political rival in next month’s Israeli general election.
In a video statement earlier this week, Netanyahu falsely accused Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor, of supporting Hamas and inciting riots against the city’s Jewish population.
Mamdani said earlier this year that he was looking into whether his office could arrest Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Gaza, if he visited New York. But he later conceded that he did not have the legal authority to do so. The US is not a party to the ICC and does not recognize its authority.
Despite his criticism of the Israeli government and staunch support for Palestinian rights, Mamdani is reportedly not taking part in the protests against Netanyahu scheduled to take place in New York. The New York Times reported that he will instead be visiting an LGBTQ+ centre with the prime minister of the Netherlands.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will also be addressing the UN General Assembly via video. Like last year, Abbas was banned from entering the US by the Trump administration, with the State Department saying in a statement that the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) had “failed to live up to their commitments.”
The news has been trickling in this morning from the White House reporters showing back up for work, but now it’s confirmed that all three outlets targeted in Trump’s White House press ban are saying they’re still being denied access to the building, after a judge’s order to let them back in.
We’ll see as the morning wears on whether that changes.
Politico, CNN, MS Now reporters blocked from White House despite judge’s ruling
Yesterday evening, after briefly taking the case under consideration, a federal judge ordered the White House to temporarily restore access to CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, the three outlets the president banned from the building via a social media post last week.
White House security may not have gotten the memo, according to Thursday morning reports from the three news outlets involved. All three reported that they had journalists turned away from the White House early in the morning.
Politico wrote this morning that a reporter showing up for work was blocked from entering the White House on Thursday and had his press credentials seized. The alleged denial of entry came after a federal judge instructed the Trump administration last night to allow the news outlets their usual access while their lawsuit against the president over the ban moves forward.
CNN reported that some its staff – including reporter Betsy Klein and a photojournalist – were barred from entering the White House early on Thursday around 6a.m., without receiving a reason for being denied entry. However, the channel said one of its producers gained entry to the building using their pass.
Some CNN staff, however, were unable to gain access to the White House early Thursday morning. CNN reporter Betsy Klein and a photojournalist were denied access to the White House grounds in the 6:00 a.m. hour.
The Associated Press also reported that a CNN journalist told the outlet she was denied access to the White House on Thursday morning.
CNN said would it continue trying to gain access to the building as the day goes on.
MS Now also reported on Thursday morning that one of its journalists had been barred entry.
MS Now White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López said that a member of the secret service informed her that her press credentials were “still coming up as disabled” when scanned. “Then he confiscated my badge, and I had to leave the premises,” she said.
Barrón-López said it was unclear whether the refusal of entry was in deliberate defiance of the court order or “incompetence or a lag in the system.”
Ahead of talks with Xi, Trump points to AI as major subject
President Trump teased in a social media post this morning that artificial intelligence would be a major part of his talks today with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his state visit to Washington.
He also suggested that he would avoid entertaining any kind of agreement between the two nations limiting AI development.
“A big day with President Xi of China,” Trump wrote in the post to his personal social media platform. “Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China’s position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ! President DJT.”
(Super intelligence is the term Trump has been pushing to refer to artificial intelligence. He pitched the language earlier this week in a tangent during his speech to the world leaders at the United Nations. It’s unclear at this point if anybody is going to take him up on it.)
After an unusually warm red carpet welcome ceremony on the tarmac yesterday, Trump is scheduled to receive Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the White House South Portico. The pair will deliver remarks, exchange gifts, and watch a military review before a busy day of talks and diplomatic pageantry.
Donald Trump has been raging about a story first reported by MS Now on Wednesday that he is seeking to rename the Ford Theatre in Washington DC, a site infamous for the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln, after himself.
Last night he posted on Truth Social about the news item, blaming “Dumocrats” for the “ridiculous lie.”
This morning, hours after the late night ruling from the judge that temporarily reinstated CNN, Politico, and MS Now, Trump (again) said:
The Dumocrats make up lie after lie. The new one is that I want Ford’s Theater named after me. That’s where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Who would want that? I don’t! It is FAKE NEWS started by MSDNC AND CNN.
This is his first mention of the day of his lesser-favored media outlets. He has not acknowledged the judge’s ruling to restore them access to the White House – yet. We’ll bring you more lines as they come in.
Some more background information on this ongoing situation between the Trump administration and the White House press correspondents:
The three outlets sued Trump and other members of his administration in federal court in Washington on Monday, saying the ban violated the US constitution’s first amendment protections for free speech and a free press, as well as their due process rights. They requested a temporary restraining order that would immediately reinstate their White House access while their legal challenge plays out.
Trump had said on social media that the three outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES,” and justice department lawyers had sought to justify the ban on national security grounds.
A Justice Department lawyer told the judge the Trump administration provided a sufficient explanation for the revocation of the press passes in letters sent to the news outlets on Tuesday. But the judge signaled skepticism of that argument, noting that the letters were sent after the revocation occurred and the lawsuit was filed.
In a legal filing on Tuesday, the Justice Department argued that access to the White House is a privilege, not an entitlement, and that the president has the authority to suspend access by news organizations.
Trump’s ban on CNN, Politico and MS Now likely unconstitutional, judge rules in restoring temporary access
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog.
We start now with breaking news from the late night hours: a federal judge has temporarily restored White House access to journalists from CNN, Politico and MS Now after president Donald Trump banned them due to their coverage of his administration.
US district judge Tim Kelly issued his order in a lawsuit that the news organizations filed contesting the ban that the president announced on 18 September, saying it was likely unconstitutional.
Kelly ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the outlets’ press passes and issued a temporary restraining order that will be in effect for 14 days. Such orders are typically designed to preserve the status quo pending a closer review of the case by the court.
In other news today:
