Scott Audette/Reuters
Doanld Trump announced on Monday that The Washington Post has been banned from covering his events. "Based on the incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting of the record setting Trump campaign, we are hereby revoking the press credentials of the phony and dishonest Washington Post," Trump wrote on Facebook. The newspaper joins other outlets that have been banned from Trump rallies, including Politico, the Huffington Post, and BuzzFeed. The Daily Beast is also routinely denied press credentials.
“Donald Trump's decision to revoke The Washington Post’s press credentials is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press. When coverage doesn't correspond to what the candidate wants it to be, then a news organization is banished,” the Post's editor Marty Baron wrote Monday afternoon. “The Post will continue to cover Donald Trump as it has all along—honorably, honestly, accurately, energetically, and unflinchingly. We're proud of our coverage, and we're going to keep at it."
In a Monday evening statement, Trump's campaign expanded on its decision to ban the newspaper, attacking it as unfair and more concerned with clicks than honest reporting.
"Mr. Trump does not mind a bad story, but it has to be honest," the campaign said, specifically referencing a story published on The Post's website Monday morning. "The fact is, The Washington Post is being used by the owners of Amazon as their political lobbyist so that they don't have to pay taxes and don't get sued for monopolistic tendencies that have led to the destruction of department stores and the retail industry."
The article that Trump specifically mentioned -- both in the press release and a Facebook post earlier Monday -- originally ran with the headline, "Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shooting." The headline has since been changed to: "Donald Trump seems to connect President Obama to Orlando shooting."