Photo credit: theGrio
Former President Barack Obama waded into the growing controversy over President Donald Trump’s decision to bar three major news outlets from the White House. And he did it with a pointed joke about Fox News.
What Obama said about the press ban
Speaking Friday at Colgate University, Obama reacted to Trump’s move to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House press briefings. He said his imagination could not have predicted some of what is happening in politics right now.
Obama then posed a hypothetical. He wondered aloud what would have happened if he had tried to kick Fox News out of the briefing room during his own presidency. The crowd laughed as he called the idea “unimaginable.”
Why Trump banned the outlets
Trump announced the ban on Truth Social. He accused the three outlets of publishing what he called fake news. As a result, CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters lost their hard passes, the credentials that allow journalists to access White House grounds, use press offices and attend daily briefings.
The fallout was immediate. Reporters from all three outlets were turned away when they showed up for work. In fact, one CNN journalist reportedly had her press pass physically taken. Meanwhile, all three organizations have said they plan to fight the decision in court, arguing the ban violates the First Amendment.
The bigger picture
Legal experts and press freedom advocates have widely criticized the ban as unconstitutional. Additionally, Obama’s comments added symbolic weight to the backlash. His joke framed Trump’s move as an unprecedented escalation in the relationship between the White House and the press corps.
The moment also highlights a contrast. While Trump has taken direct action to restrict access for outlets he views as adversarial, Obama’s own administration faced criticism in 2009 for briefly excluding Fox News from certain interviews. However, that decision was quickly reversed.
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Source: thegrio (Instagram); additional reporting from CNN and HuffPost
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