White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made a bold assertion Thursday while speaking with Fox News’ Jesse Watters.
Leavitt’s appearance came less than a week after the Associated Press filed a lawsuit against her and other White House staffers for the Trump administration’s decision to bar the news entity from the Oval Office and Air Force One over its refusal to change its styling of the Gulf of Mexico to the Trump-created “Gulf of America.” The AP argued that the administration is trying to restrict its constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech.
“It’s a very hard argument to make when the President of the United States holds press conferences himself for more than an hour, sometimes multiple times a day, and takes questions from an array of journalists from outlets on the Left and on the Right,” Leavitt said when asked about the matter by Watters. “This is the most accessible and transparent administration in history, and anybody who just watches the television can see that, except for the Associated Press, I guess.”
You can watch Leavitt’s full interview below:
Federal Judge Trevor McFadden declined on Monday to issue the temporary restraining order against the White House that the Associated Press sought for blocking its access. Another hearing is set for March 20 that will give the AP the chance to plead the merits of its case again.
“Even a judge, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. sided with us in saying that the Associated Press, or any outlet, does not have a legal right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president questions. It is a privilege,” Leavitt reiterated in her Fox interview. “And it’s a privilege that has unfortunately been restricted by this group of D.C.-based journalists who call themselves the White House Correspondents’ Association and have had a monopoly over the White House and its press access. Not anymore.”
The Trump administration’s conflict with the Associated Press has unfolded amidst the former’s flurry of ongoing changes to the White House’s press infrastructure. In addition to Trump’s decision to personally bar the AP from Air Force One and the Oval Office, Leavitt also announced on Tuesday that the administration’s media team will choose going forward which outlets are part of the White House press pool. That power has long belonged to the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Citing these changes, Leavitt told Watters, “We are going to keep the legacy media outlets around because we are not afraid to take questions from anybody, but we are also going to add those new voices in the mix who deserve to be there and who are excited about the privilege of enjoying this Trump administration and asking the President of the United States questions.”
