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White House Defends Decision to Bar CNN Reporter from Event

by Associated Press

   The White House on Thursday defended its decision to bar a CNN
   correspondent from attending an open press event but contended it had
   nothing to do with the questions she asked.

   Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Kaitlan Collins was denied
   access to Trump's Rose Garden event with the European Commission
   president on Wednesday because of her refusal to leave the Oval Office
   during a previous availability with the president. She and her
   employer, CNN, said she was barred because White House officials found
   her questions "inappropriate," which Gidley disputed.

   "It had nothing to do with the content of the question," Gidley told
   reporters aboard Air Force One as President Donald Trump headed back to
   Washington from Iowa and Illinois.

   Collins had served as a representative of the television networks
   during an earlier "pool spray" availability in the Oval Office. She and
   a handful of other reporters peppered the president with questions,
   including many focused on his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. A day
   earlier, CNN had obtained and aired a secret audio recording that
   captured Trump and Cohen discussing a potential payment to a former
   Playboy model who claims she had an affair with Trump.

   Gidley said Collins "was told repeatedly to leave the Oval Office." She
   refused and stayed "despite staff, Secret Service, everyone trying to
   usher everyone out of the room," Gidley said. "And that can't happen."

   Other journalists who were in the room disputed the White House
   account.

   Numerous reporters, including many from the European Union delegation,
   had been shouting questions, and, as usual, it took some time for the
   pack of journalists to file out the doors. Trump frequently answers
   reporters' questions even as staffers try to usher them out of the
   room, creating sometimes-chaotic scenes where low-level press officers
   shout at reporters as the president tries to speak.

   Press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday said the White House had
   made clear that other CNN journalists were welcome at the Rose Garden
   event, just not Collins.

   "To be clear, we support a free press and ask that everyone be
   respectful of the presidency and guests at the White House," she said.

   Earlier Thursday, White House communications chief Bill Shine quibbled
   with the use of the word "ban" in describing the action taken against
   Collins.

   "Would you ask her if we ever used the word 'ban'?" Shine told
   reporters.

   And Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway said the incident showed the need
   broadly for more "civility" between reporters and the White House.

   "I think it should start here at the White House and just show a little
   bit more respect," she said.

   Asked whether Trump had directed the decision, Gidley replied: "The
   president does feel strongly about this."

   CNN, in a statement Wednesday, objected to the White House decision,
   calling it "retaliatory in nature" and "not indicative of an open and
   free press."

   "Just because the White House is uncomfortable with a question
   regarding the news of the day doesn't mean the question isn't relevant
   and shouldn't be asked," the network said.

   The White House Correspondents' Association also issued a harshly
   worded statement condemning "the White House's misguided and
   inappropriate decision ... to bar one of our members from an open press
   event after she asked questions they did not like."