White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned on Wednesday that the Trump administration will hold the “lies” of news organizations “accountable” after The Associated Press confirmed that a reporter was blocked from the Oval Office on Tuesday due to the outlet’s refusal to use the term “Gulf of America.”
During a White House press briefing, Kaitlan Collins, a CNN correspondent, asked Leavitt to identify which Trump administration official made the decision to prevent a reporter from The Associated Press from entering the Oval Office.
In response, Leavitt said, “Let me just set the record straight. It is a privilege to cover this White House… Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president of the United States questions. That’s an invitation that is given.”
Leavitt explained that while there are “hundreds of outlets” that cover news at the White House, many of the outlets are not provided with the “privilege” to enter the Oval Office and ask President Donald Trump questions.
In a Tuesday statement from The Associated Press, executive editor Julie Pace wrote, “Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office.”
The Associated Press confirmed that a reporter from the outlet was blocked from entering the Oval Office during an executive order signing on Tuesday afternoon.
“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” Pace added in Tuesday’s statement. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”
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During the White House press briefing, Collins asked Leavitt if the Trump administration’s decision to block a reporter from entering the Oval Office due to the outlet using “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “Gulf of America” was “setting a precedent” that the White House will “retaliate against reporters” who do not use certain language approved by the administration.
Leavitt answered, “I was very upfront in my briefing on day one that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable.”
The press secretary also noted that “Gulf of America” was already made official by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, adding, “It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the “Gulf of America,’ and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that.”