Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sept. 27 backed President Donald Trump's decision to remove CNN from the scheduled TV pool aboard Air Force One a day earlier, saying the White House gets to choose who travels with the commander in chief.
CNN reported that it was blocked from boarding Air Force One for Trump's trip to Neyland Stadium to attend the college football game between the University of Texas and the University of Tennessee on Sept. 26.
"The White House routinely decides who can go on Air Force One," Blanche said in an interview with "This Week" coanchor Martha Raddatz. "This wasn't a one-time denial of CNN. There's all kinds of times when certain reporters are not flying or are flying."
Blanche continued: "It's not unusual, and as a matter
of fact, it's common every time the president travels that he and his team decide which reporters get to travel with the president."
The response comes amid an ongoing dispute between the Trump administration and at least three news outlets over press pool access and media restrictions.
CNN was set to cover Trump on Sept. 26 on behalf of the television pool – where ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and FOX take turns covering Trump and sharing feeds with the other networks. CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene told CNN's Anderson Cooper that the network was not included on the list of outlets traveling with the president.
The White House, Blanche told Raddatz, had the right to remove CNN from the plane.
"At some point, complete misinformation and the inaccuracy of one-sided news of certain organizations does become a national security issue," Blanche said. He did not elaborate on what misinformation or inaccuracies he was referring to or explain how CNN’s coverage posed a national security concern.
'Being in the White House is a privilege'
During the interview with Raddatz, Blanche also defended the White House's decision to ban journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the premises
"The president hasn't denied access. That's not the right way to describe it. What the president has said is that he is sick and tired of certain media outlets just refusing to report accurate news," Blanche said. "There's still obviously litigation going on, but the important thing, Martha, is to know that… being in the White House is a privilege. It's not a right."
On Sept. 24, U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly, a Trump appointee, issued a temporary restraining order to reinstate press passes for reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico after Trump announced on Sept. 18 he was banning them from the White House.
In the court order, Kelly blocked officials from enforcing the ban for 14 days and ordered the White House to return and restore White House press passes that were revoked from reporters at the outlets.
Contributing: Emily R. Condon, USA TODAY
Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Todd Blanche backs decision to block CNN from Air Force One
