The White House is reportedly preparing to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.
CNN’s Brian Stelter first reported Wednesday that a senior White House official confirmed the administration’s plans to challenge the decision.
“The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office. The lies they smear are a disservice to the American public and tear at the very fabric of our Democracy. They’re completely capable of reporting from directly outside. We intend to appeal this misguided decision,” the official said.
Last month, Judge Timothy Kelly blocked the president’s media ban. Kelly was nominated by Trump to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2017.
After the three outlets sued to regain access to the White House grounds, Kelly issued a restraining order and later extended it.
The appeal sets the stage for a continued legal fight between the administration and the news organizations.
On Wednesday, CNN chairman and editor-in-chief Mark Thompson sat for a rare on-camera interview in which he vowed to keep fighting the president’s efforts to ban the network. Thompson said there may be a trial “sooner or later.”
“It’s the judge saying that our complaint — that our fundamental rights to cover the president properly inside the White House and the rest of it, were violated, and that we’re likely to prevail in the final trial,” Thompson said.
“So, to me, it’s a vote of confidence in free speech, and our right — not really so much for ourselves, but on behalf of the public everywhere,” he added.
Thompson said the ruling also mattered on behalf of everyone who subscribes to the TV pool, which CNN is part of, so they can hear their political leader held to account by the press “in ways that no politician always loves by the way.” He said the “fundamental defense of that takes a step forward.”
When Trump first announced the ban, he said it was because the outlets were spreading “fake news” about him.
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
At the time, the president also vowed that he would go after other media outlets in the future.
The White House official’s statement makes clear the administration is not backing down from its position that the three outlets do not belong inside the Oval Office. The official argued the networks can still cover the president from just outside the White House.
CNN, meanwhile, has signaled it is equally determined to press its case. Thompson framed the court’s decision as a win not only for the network but for the public and the broader press pool.
The judge’s order remains in place as the White House moves forward with its appeal, keeping the dispute over press access squarely in the courts as the administration and the outlets dig in on opposite sides.
