WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) – US television networks will resume their coverage of President Donald Trump’s events, a CNN reporter said on Friday, amid an ongoing court fight after the administration blocked it from the White House along with MS NOW and Politico.
CNN said it would be at the National Archives on Friday when Trump is set to tour the complex housing America’s founding documents, including the US Constitution, with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the First Amendment case winds through the US courts.
“There will be pool coverage,” CNN reporter Kristen Holmes said on air on Friday, speaking from White House grounds where the network’s access was reinstated a day earlier.
Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump had banned the three news outlets from the White House complex last week over coverage he asserted was false or negative. Their access was reinstated midday on Thursday after a federal judge deemed the ban likely unconstitutional and ordered their access immediately restored.
However, the White House television press pool signaled it would not resume coverage until the White House formally reinstated CNN in solidarity with the cable news television network.
CNN along with ABC, CBS, FOX News and NBC share the costs of covering the president and rotate coverage, providing pool footage to other outlets.
The group’s refusal to set up cameras meant there has been no pool coverage of Xi’s visit to Washington so far. But CNN said there would be footage on Friday.
“CNN will be at the National Archives. CBS will be having pool coverage here at the White House,” Holmes said. CBS was listed as the pool camera for Friday’s events in Trump’s public schedule.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Scott Malone and Andrea Ricci )
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