Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer at the National Press Club on August 13, 2018 (Image: Shutterstock)
Supporters of President Donald Trump have spent the past week attempting to justify his expulsion of three press outlets from the White House. But one CNN host isn't having it.
According to Sean Spicer, Trump's former press secretary, Joe "Biden stripped the press passes of 440 independent journalists. @CNN said nothing. Had zero concern for the 1st Amendment."
Host Abby Phillip shot back with her own mockery and fact-check.
"Lol @seanspicer, Google is free!" she said, linking him to an Associated Press report blasting the conspiracy theory as completely inaccurate.
This is the second conspiracy theory that Republicans have used to justify Trump's press ban. The first was the inaccurate claim that former President Barack Obama banned Fox News from the White House. In fact, the White House communications team didn't invite Fox to an interview that included other major outlets. In that one instance, CNN stopped it by saying that if Fox was barred, it wouldn't participate. The White House backed down. Fox was never banned from the White House.
The AP report dispels the Biden administration's claim, explaining that in 2023 the administration revised the policy for obtaining "long-term press passes." Every journalist holding such a pass must reapply and clarify that they are still employed full-time for a news outlet. They also must have a physical address in the Washington, D.C. area and must have accessed the White House for work at least once over six months. It's the kind of rule that previous presidents used.
"There are two types of White House press passes. Hard passes are for journalists who cover the White House regularly," the AP said. "They require approval from the press secretary and a background check by the Secret Service, according to the White House Correspondents’ Association, and are valid for an extended period. Those without a hard pass can request a temporary pass for specific events or on a day-to-day basis."
According to a report from the time, the number of hard pass holders dropped from 1,417 to 975 after the change. That's where the 442 number comes from. They weren't banned. They simply had to meet the criteria and reapply.
The White House explained at the time that 40 percent of the people who held hard passes hadn't even been to the White House in the past three months. Out of all of the people who reapplied, only one person was denied a pass. They were never identified, however.