Always Test Your Hopium

Let's start with, uh, Donald Trump's plan to make his Chinese communist pal, Xi Jinping, feel right at home during his visit to America, a crackdown on journalists who report news that Trump doesn't like.

On Thursday morning, Trump-appointed Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to restore the press access Trump tried to revoke for CNN, MSNow, and Politico, at least while the lawsuit plays out.

Uh, Judge Kelly said the outlets would probably succeed with their claims, uh, and was not swayed by the administration's argument that the ban was really about protecting national security.

Probably didn't help that the White House made their case by citing a Politico story, the source for which turned out to be, according to Oliver Darcy at Status, J.D. Vance.

[laughs] J.D. Vance, risking national security by leaking to Politico with an, uh, administration-approved background briefing.

That's how you get away with it.

That's how you get away with it.

Uh, by late Thursday morning, after initially getting turned away again, even after the judge's ruling, uh, reporters [laughs] from the offending outlets were finally back in the briefing room.

Still some confusion about when and whether network pool coverage will resume.

Uh, that's contingent on the White House allowing CNN to participate.

Uh, First Amendment principles aside, 'cause since the White House is putting them aside, why not us? Um, as a former White House communications director, how much do you think access to the building matters these days?

I don't want to put them totally aside, 'cause it is just worth s- just, we just should say that it is absolutely essential that the federal government cannot bar media, members of the media, from accessing government property based on what they report.

Like, that is-

Yeah.

That, if that was-

It's just, it's a, it's a cut-and-dry case.

The State Department, if that was happening in any other country, the State Department would send out a warning about how democracy was falling in that country.

Like, it is a, it is a blaring red light.

Yeah, you, now, to be sure, uh, according to previous, uh, court rulings, the White House could decide we're not having any press at all-

Yes

...

in the White House.

Like, we're just not granting access to anyone.

Once you open it up-

Yeah