AG Todd Blanche Says One-Sided News Is a National Security Issue
Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday that media outlets reporting what the Trump administration considers to be “one-sided” news is a national security issue severe enough to justify barring journalists from the White House and Air Force One. Speaking in an interview on ABC’s This Week, Blanche defended the administration’s actions amid an ongoing federal court battle over press credentials.
Legal Battle Over White House Press Credentials
Blanche’s definition of what constitutes a national security risk elaborates on a government claim made in a court filing. The filing seeks to justify President Donald Trump’s effort to implement a press ban against CNN, MSNOW, and Politico. Federal Judge Timothy Kelly greeted the administration’s arguments with skepticism, ordering the Trump administration to temporarily restore the credentials of the affected journalists.
Judge Kelly ruled that the revocation was executed without constitutionally adequate due process. He also pushed back against the Department of Justice’s national security argument, stating that the articles cited by the government were routine and offered little support for an asserted national security interest.
“For one thing, nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns,” Judge Kelly wrote. He noted that President Trump instead focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of the reporting when he announced the ban.
Administration Defends Position on Misinformation
The government initially cited reports from the outlets referencing information provided by senior White House officials as a national security concern. However, Blanche clarified that the administration’s primary concern centers on reporting he deems one-sided.
“What I’m talking about is the government’s position and what the Department of Justice said in court, which is the same thing that President Trump has said repeatedly, which is at some point, at some point, the complete misinformation and the inaccuracy and the one-sided news out of certain organizations does become a national security issue, and it’s not right for the people of the United States to have to put up with it,” Blanche said on ABC’s This Week. He did not offer any details to support his claims of inaccuracy.
During an exchange last week with US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins noted that a CNN report cited by Waltz regarding concerns over a shortage of munitions during the Iran War was based on a Pentagon Inspector General’s report.
Restrictions on Air Force One Travel Continue
Despite being let back into the White House complex following the court order, the White House barred CNN from flying on Air Force One on Saturday. The network was scheduled to fly aboard the presidential aircraft on a trip to Tennessee for a college football game as part of the White House TV press pool—a rotating group of journalists covering the president in areas with limited space and sharing information with other major television networks.
On Sunday, Fox News handled its regularly scheduled pool duties for the president’s trip to Chicago, where he attended the Presidents Cup golf tournament.
Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, UN Ambassador Mike Waltz echoed Blanche’s sentiments, asserting that media bias across the board needs to be fixed. “There is a negative agenda. There is a negative narrative, and then we’re going to get anonymous sources. Heck, I just saw a story where anonymous sources were referring to a now dead senator. So, yeah, this needs to be fixed. And President Trump is quite frustrated with this, this media bias across the board,” Waltz said.