The White House claimed on Monday the Associated Press' editorial policy regarding the Gulf of Mexico’s name amounted to “lies,” as it banned one of its reporters from its events for the second day in a row.
The White House barred multiple AP reporters from covering different events on Tuesday, including an Oval Office event with President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. On Wednesday, it again prevented one of its reporters from attending Tulsi Gabbard’s swearing-in ceremony to become the Director of National Intelligence, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported.
The moves have sparked widespread condemnation from press freedom groups and the AP, which said it “plainly violates the First Amendment.”
During Wednesday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the White House gets to decide who enters the Oval Office—and bar journalists over editorial decisions it disagrees with.
Trump signed an executive order last month to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and Alaska’s Mount Denali once again to “Mount McKinley.”
“I was very upfront in my briefing on day one that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable,” Leavitt said. “It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that, but that is what it is.”
“We are deeply concerned that the White House continues to prevent AP reporters from doing their job covering the president,” AP executive editor Julie Pace said in a statement.
“At issue here is free speech - a pillar of American democracy and a value of the utmost importance to all Americans, regardless of political persuasion, occupation or industry.”
The AP said last month after Trump ordered the name change that it would maintain its usage of the Gulf of Mexico, owing to the 400-year history behind the name and its usage by other countries. The publication, however, said it would switch its usage of Mount Denali to Mount McKinley, in line with the Trump administration’s edict.
“A fundamental role of a free press is to serve as the public’s eyes and ears,” Pace added. “When journalists are blocked from covering elected officials, it is the American public who suffers. This sets an alarming precedent that has the potential to affect every news outlet and, in turn, severely limit the public’s right to know what is happening inside their government.
“We continue to urge the White House to end this practice of barring AP reporters.”
Leavitt’s comments came after Pace sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday “to object in the strongest possible terms to the actions taken by the Trump administration.”
“The actions taken by the White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech,” Pace wrote, according to The New York Times. “It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say. This is viewpoint discrimination based on a news organization’s editorial choices and a clear violation of the First Amendment.”
Still, Leavitt suggested the White House would not back down from its retaliatory move.
“Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the President of the United States questions—that’s an invitation that is given," she said. “We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office.”
