Earlier this week the Trump campaign stripped the Washington Post of press credentials after the outlet published a misleading headline surrounding the presumptive GOP nominee's comments about the Orlando Islamic terror attack.
Since the revocation, an uproar among press and free speech advocates has ensued and questions about whether Trump would simply boot reporters from the White House press corps should he become President have been raised. The Washington Post isn't the first outlet targeted by the Trump campaign, in fact, the campaign has taken away coverage access to reporters from POLITICO, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, Univision, The Daily Beast and The Des Moines Register.
Despite this history, Donald Trump is reassuring the press he won't kick reporters out of the White House briefing room. From CNN:
While Donald Trump's campaign is refusing to give press credentials to reporters from The Washington Post and several other news outlets, he says the ban will not remain in effect if he is elected.
At the White House, "it's a different thing," Trump told CNN in a telephone interview Tuesday night.
He repeatedly said he would not try to revoke any press credentials if elected president.
"In my case, I'm a person running for office. I rent these large arenas... so I have an option" to deny access to members of the media, Trump said. "When I'm representing the United States, I wouldn't do that. But I would let people know if somebody's untruthful."
Yesterday the White House Correspondents Association blasted the Trump campaign and released a statement.
"The White House Correspondents' Association stands with the Washington Post and numerous other news outlets that Donald Trump has arbitrarily banned from his campaign events," WHCA President Carol Lee said. " Any nominee for the highest office in the country must respect the role of a free and adversarial press, not disown the principles of the First Amendment just because he or she does not like the tone or content of their coverage.
Earlier this year, the Association issued a separate warning about the Trump campaign's attitude and behavior toward the press after campaign manager Corey Lewandowski physically grabbed former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields by the arm after she asked Trump a question during a public event, leaving her with bruises.
I'll leave you with this:“The WHCA unequivocally condemns any act of violence or intimidation against any journalist covering 2016 campaign" pic.twitter.com/YAQn1la1RS
— Matt Viser (@mviser) March 11, 2016
Even Saddam Hussein didn't revoke the @washingtonpost press credentials.
— Rajiv Chandrasekaran (@rajivscribe) June 14, 2016
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