CNN reporter Kristen Holmes has furiously called out President Donald Trump for “lying” about media coverage of his fawning White House event for a Chinese dictator.
Trump, 80, was humiliated when his media ban for CNN, MS NOW and Politico was temporarily blocked by a judge he appointed, who ordered that the outlets have their access to the White House restored Thursday morning.
The president fired off a Truth Social post hours later, at 4:50 p.m., after his events to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House had begun at 10 a.m.
“CNN and MSDNC, to show you how fake they are, today refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years, the arrival at the White House of the Highly Respected President of China, Xi Jinping, and his beautiful wife, Madam Peng,” he wrote.
He added, “The event was magnificent — Actually made for Television but, because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to `TRUMP,’ they refused to be there. That’s why they have such poor Ratings.”
White House reporter Holmes was live on The Lead with Jake Tapper less than 15 minutes after Trump made his whiny Truth Social post and instantly fact-checked the president live on TV.
Calling Trump’s post “really astounding,” she pointed out that CNN White House reporter Betsy Klein “was still standing on a corner, without her press pass, having tried to get in multiple times after 9 a.m” ahead of the 10 a.m. event.
Holmes added that Klein still had no White House access until 12 p.m. when the welcome to the Chinese leader was already “wrapping up.”
Tackling the inaccuracies in Trump’s post, Holmes said “he is clearly very angry there has been no coverage of his meeting and welcome to President Xi” and then “lashed out” at CNN and MS NOW.
She continued, “I want to read to part of this, because it is just fundamentally not true,” and read out Trump’s claim the two outlets had “refused to cover” the event at the White House.
An irritated Holmes said, “So, either somebody in President Trump’s administration or the press office is lying to President Trump, or he does not have a fundamental understanding of what exactly happened today, or he himself is not telling the truth in this post.”
Directly addressing Trump, Holmes said, “We would have covered this event, had you not banned CNN and MS NOW and Politico.”
Referencing the major media outlets who rotate coverage as part of the White House press pool, Holmes said, “CNN would have covered this, as would the pool, if they had not been banned and kicked out of the press pool rotation.”
She added, “And that is why there were not cameras there, and that is why reporters were not there from the TV press pool today, and that is the only reason why. Because at this point, there was already a court order, and CNN had already tried to get back into the White House to fulfill their responsibilities and to cover this event.”
The Daily Beast has contacted CNN and the White House for comment.
Holmes also pointed out that while CNN was belatedly allowed into the White House grounds, they were forbidden from covering Trump’s state dinner for the Chinese leader, as the White House only wanted a TV camera and audio feed present for the event, not a reporter or a producer.
