Low Bar Indeed: “Rubio defends Trump’s banning media organizations, arguing there aren’t ‘soldiers kicking down the doors’ of the outlets”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration’s decision to bar three media organizations from the White House, saying in an interview on NBC News’ “TODAY” that President Donald Trump was not closing outlets or arresting reporters.
“We’re not closing CNN,” Rubio said of the ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico. “There aren’t a bunch of police officers or soldiers kicking down the doors of MSNBC or MS NOW, whatever it’s called, and arresting people and unplugging it from the grid. They’re just not allowed to work from the workspace at the White House.”…
Rubio told “TODAY” that the three banned outlets would be able to continue covering the president from outside the White House, adding that Trump believed that the outlets have shown bias against his administration and therefore did not have a right to remain in the White House building.
“What he is arguing is, why should I have these people, what right do they have to be embedded in this building?” Rubio said. “They can cover the White House. They just can’t have a desk there.”
In their lawsuit, the outlets argued that the ban violated their due process and First Amendment rights, claiming the ban “retaliates against protected newsgathering and speech” and bars the outlets “from a nonpublic forum for unlawful reasons.”…
