The White Home final week introduced that “all journalists deserve a seat” within the Oval Workplace press pool. For a fleeting second on Friday, that included the Russian state media.
A staffer from TASS, a Russian outlet that usually promotes glorified protection of Russian chief Vladimir Putin, was briefly within the room for President Donald Trump’s bilateral assembly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. American media mainstays Reuters and the Related Press weren’t granted entry.
In accordance with the White Home, the Russian reporter’s presence was unplanned.
“TASS was not on the permitted checklist of media for as we speak’s pool,” a White Home official mentioned. “As quickly because it got here to the eye of press workplace employees that he was within the Oval, he was escorted out by the Press Secretary. He’s not on the permitted checklist for the press convention.”
The White Home didn’t deal with how the unapproved reporter was capable of acquire entry to the Oval Workplace.
The second marks simply the most recent flip within the ongoing saga of the White Home backlash towards mainstream information. Trump has more and more tightened media entry to the White Home, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt final week asserting that the administration would management who has entry to the White Home within the Oval Workplace press pool – not the independently-elected White Home Correspondents Affiliation lengthy tasked with making these selections.
It additionally comes as Trump more and more aligns himself with Putin — and criticizes Zelenskyy — prompting concern that the U.S.’s new ally on the worldwide stage is the Kremlin.
