White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is calling on the news media to show more “respect” for the White House and President Trump after a CNN reporter was barred from a Rose Garden event.
Conway told reporters on the White House lawn Thursday that reporters should show “a little bit more respect” and avoid shouting questions to the president outside of normal press appearances.
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“I think that the question isn’t, are the press allowed to ask questions? This president obviously isn’t afraid of questions. We answer them routinely,” Conway said.
CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said Wednesday that White House communications official Bill Shine and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had denied her entry to a Rose Garden event after she had shouted questions to Trump as he sat for pictures with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Collins said that Shine had told her the questions were “inappropriate” and that she would be barred from a subsequent press event.
The move was condemned by journalists and the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which called the move “wrong-headed” and “weak.”
“This type of retaliation is wholly inappropriate, wrong-headed, and weak,” WHCA President Olivier Knox said. “It cannot stand. Reporters asking questions of powerful government officials, up to and including the President, helps hold those people accountable.”
“That incident aside, just being polite to the process, to the presidency, to the protocol, and not shouting questions long after the press has politely been asked to leave, long after you’ve had opportunity to be there with the president, I think it’s a very reasonable request,” Conway said on Thursday.
“And that incident aside, I’m just speaking more broadly, the civility that you all call for sometimes when you’re in your broadcasts, I think it should start here at the White House, and just show a little bit more respect,” Conway she added. “I think it’s the shouting and the pouting long after the press corps has been politely asked to leave the room.”