White House Bars AP and Reuters From Trump-Zelensky Meeting — Kicks Out Russian State Media Reporter Who Snuck In

A White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday made news right away for some drama in the press corps, with two outlets being barred from the Oval Office and a reporter from a Russian state-owned media outlet apparently sneaking in, and then getting kicked out by White House staff.

The Trump administration has been publicly sparring with the White House press corps, barring the AP from the Oval Office and Air Force One over a dispute about the name of a body of water and taking control of the press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Several journalists, including The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg and Reuters’ Nandita Bose, reported Friday morning that the AP and Reuters had been “excluded” from being in the room — along with initially reporting that a correspondent from TASS, a state-owned news agency and the largest in Russia, was among the “hand-picked” reporters invited to the Oval Office for the Trump-Zelensky meeting.

The White

House swiftly pushed back against the reports the TASS reporter was invited, saying instead that he snuck into the meeting.

“TASS was not on the approved list of media for today’s pool. As soon as it came to the attention of press office staff that he was in the Oval, he was escorted out by the Press Secretary,” a White House official said in a statement to reporters. “He is not on the approved list for the press conference.”

Feinberg and Bose posted updated tweets with the White House statement.

 

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