CNN’s Abby Phillip Smacks Down Scott Jennings On Trump Banning AP: ‘There Is Free Speech In This Country’
CNN anchor Abby Phillip smacked down analyst Scott Jennings when he defended President Donald Trump’s decision to ban the Associated Press for ignoring his demand they alter their editorial guidance.
Trump signed an executive order on Inauguration Day changing the name of The Gulf of Mexico to The Gulf of America — an edict with which several organizations have begun to comply.
But the AP has thus far resisted, and this week Trump punished them for it by banning the wire service from several White House events — a move that drew widespread condemnation.
On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip knocked down several rationalizations Jennings offered in defense of Trump’s move and reminded him “there’s free speech in this country”:
JENNINGS: Why do you think the A.P. won’t just call it the Gulf of America? I mean, the president does —
PHILLIP: Let me just —
JENNINGS: We renamed, what’s the mountain, Denali, Mount McKinley.
PHILLIP: Let me read their explanation for why they are not doing it. Essentially, they are saying that Mexico — that Trump’s order only carries authority within the United States. Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognize that name change. The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for 400 years, as was said at the table, and the Associated Press is going to refer to it by its original name, while acknowledging that Trump has a new name that he would like to call it.
They are an international organization. No one except Trump, with a pen, has said that it’s the Gulf of America. It’s a body of water that also has borders with another country. And it’s been named that for 400 years.
JENNINGS: I know, but we have a lawful process in this country for changing the name of it. The president went through it with the secretary of the interior, by the way. I mean, it feels a little —
PHILLIP: And it’s also different — can I just answer the Denali question? I the Denali thing is actually different because that’s a place that’s in the United States proper. It exists in the country.
JENNINGS: But we change the name of it. The point is we change the name of it.
PHILLIP: So, we have the ability to change the name. It’s Mount McKinley. It’s Mount McKinley.
JENNINGS: But we also have the ability to change this body of water. I just — I think, look, this smacks of me, to me, of a news organization looking for a way to pick a fight with Donald Trump over something that they don’t need to pick a fight over, A. B, he is the president and there is a lawful process that he did follow to do it.
PHILLIP: The news organization did not pick a fight with Donald Trump over this. Donald Trump picked a fight with the news organization.
JENNINGS: No, they’re not calling it by the name. That’s the fight.
PHILLIP: No, the news organization can do whatever they want. If they want to call it the Gulf of, you know, South America, they can call it that.
JENNINGS: But why would I respect a news organization that doesn’t deal in reality?
STELTER: You don’t have to.
PHILLIP: Scott, they can call it whatever they want because there’s free speech in this country.
[22:25:01]
Wouldn’t you agree?
JENNINGS: Sure. Yes. But that, in my opinion, if you’re not willing to call something by the proper name based on the laws of the United States, that calls into question your judgment. And are you a news organization or are you just —
PHILLIP: There are no laws in play here. It’s an executive order. And the body of water is not named by the United States. It’s named by global organizations that name global landmarks. That’s not — it’s not certainly the law.
JENNINGS: So, you don’t respect Donald Trump’s executive order or the secretary of the interior’s process on this either, do you?
PHILLIP: Donald Trump had an executive order, but the Associated Press is not bound by it.
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.
