CNN Reporter Banned From White House Event for Asking Trump Questions

By Frank Dale, ThinkProgress

26 July 18

Trump's feud with the cable news network is reaching new levels under Bill Shine.

NN reporter Kaitlan Collins was “dis-invited from the press availability” at a White House event on Wednesday after she asked President Donald Trump questions that he apparently didn’t like.

According to the cable news network, Collins’ questions covered Trump’s relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin and recordings made by his longtime attorney, Michael Cohen.

New White House employee and disgraced former Fox News executive Bill Shine was involved in the decision to bar Collins, per the Daily Beast.

Trump didn’t answer, and Collins was then summoned to the office of Trump’s new deputy chief of staff for communications — and former Fox News executive — Bill Shine.

Collins says he told her she was “disinvited from the press availability in the Rose Garden today” because she had “shouted” questions he and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deemed “inappropriate.”

Shine was hired to a key communications role in the White House despite his mishandling of numerous allegations of sexual misconduct at Fox News. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes summarized Shine’s tenure at Fox News in a tweet:

The White House Correspondents’ Association condemned “the White House’s misguided and inappropriate decision today to bar one of our members from an open press event after she asked questions they did not like.”

Trump has a long-running vendetta against CNN that includes tweeting a video of him body-slamming the network. His supporters have made a habit of chanting “CNN sucks” and harassing reporters at rallies.