Once again, President Donald Trump has suffered a setback in his efforts to restrict press access to the White House.
In a ruling late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly ruled that the Trump administration must allow CNN, MS NOW and Politico access to the White House while their case to have the ban permanently overturned plays out in court.
Trump barred the outlets from the White House last month, presumably because he didn’t like their coverage, based on his public comments. Kelly initially granted the outlets a 14-day restraining order and extended it last week while he considered their request for longer-term relief. He granted that request late Tuesday, once again ruling in favor of the press.
Kelly had previously indicated that the White House violated the news outlets’ Fifth Amendment rights to due process when it banned them. And in his ruling late Tuesday, Kelly said their First Amendment rights were likely violated as well.
Kelly wrote that Trump’s own comments show a “likely causal link between Plaintiffs’ protected First Amendment speech and his revocation of their hard passes.”
He added, “President Trump likely banned Plaintiffs from the White House because he believes that their reporting is generally inaccurate and biased against him.”
The administration plans to appeal, calling Kelly’s latest ruling “misguided.” It has argued that the ban was imposed for national security reasons. The judge rejected that assertion in his latest ruling, writing there was “no evidence in the record that President Trump made the decision to revoke Plaintiffs’ hard passes on national security grounds from the get-go, nor at any time has he directly stated that national security was the reason for his decision.”
Ted Boutrous, a lead attorney for the media outlets, said in a statement, “When the President issued his ‘ban on the free press,’ he blatantly and explicitly violated due process and the First Amendment. Since then, the President has repeatedly, candidly, and consistently admitted in public that he banned our clients from the White House to punish reporting he doesn’t like and to try to force journalists to cover him in ways he prefers. The harm this ban did to our clients, the First Amendment, and the public as a whole is profound.”
Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement, “The court has put an end to a blatantly unconstitutional attempt to punish news outlets for coverage the president doesn’t like. The decision protects not only CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, but all the other holders of White House passes who continued to work under the threat of retaliation — and of course the public, which deserves timely and accurate information from a press corps free from government intimidation.”
Speaking of CNN and the fight against media restrictions from the Trump White House, CNN boss Mark Thompson made a rare on-air appearance Wednesday and vowed the network will keep fighting for its press freedoms.
Talking about the judge’s latest ruling, Thompson told CNN’s Kate Bolduan, “It’s not the end of the matter, I mean, sooner or later there may be a trial. But I think it’s a really big boost — the judge essentially saying our complaint is likely to succeed.”
Thompson added, “It’s the judge saying that our complaint — that our fundamental rights to cover the president properly inside the White House and the rest of it — were violated, and that we’re likely to prevail in the final trial. So, to me, it’s a vote of confidence in free speech, and our right — not really so much for ourselves, but on behalf of the public everywhere, and on behalf of, by the way, all the people who are subscribers to the TV pool, which we’re part of — to hear their political leader held to account by the press in ways that no politician always loves, by the way. That fundamental defense of that takes a step forward.”
Thompson struck a forceful note during the interview, saying, “This topic is one we’re never going to back down from. And no matter how many court cases, investigations, court appearances and all the expense that that entails, we will fight this one to the end.”
Thompson also sent a note to staff.
He wrote, in part, “CNN will continue to assert our press freedom rights to exhaustion. We will be patient, and no matter how long it takes, we will continue to protect our liberties. We will never back down. We stand fully behind our White House team and every other CNN journalist reporting and delivering in-depth, complicated and sometimes dangerous news day in and day out.”
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., shown here in April of this year. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. Andy Harris is having a bad week.
First, the Maryland Republican had a rough debate Tuesday night against his Democratic opponent, Dan Schwartz. When the candidates were asked about the high price of diesel, Harris blamed Democrats and environmental regulations. But before he could continue, the crowd laughed, groaned and jeered.
Harris lost his cool, saying, “This is the problem. You all say you believe there’s a First Amendment, but only if you agree with you. You should let me finish the sentence, ma’am. You are rude!”
That was a mere warm-up to the main event, which came after the debate when Harris threatened a journalist with prosecution, called for an officer and demanded that her camera be taken because he wrongly believed she was breaking the law by recording him.
Harris was talking to a small group of reporters when he started yelling at Cat Murphy of Capital News Service, a student-powered news organization run by the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. (Here’s the exchange.) Murphy is a grad student there.
Harris said, “You don’t have my permission to record. If you record, we will refer you to the prosecutor.”
Harris continued to incorrectly insist that Murphy could not record him because Maryland is a “two-party state.” That typically means one party cannot record a private conversation unless all parties agree that it can be recorded.
This, however, was not a private conversation. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy when a congressman is talking to a group of reporters in public.
Another journalist jumped in to tell Harris, “With all due respect, this is a public forum.”
Harris then turned on that reporter, asking, “Do you know the law? … I’m a legislator. I know the law well.”
Apparently he does not.
Credit to Murphy, who ignored Harris’ complaints about recording the conversation and went on to ask him about the war in Iran.
Harris said, “Take her camera. You’re gonna have to take her camera. She is violating the law. In fact, get an officer in here. She’s violating the law on two-party, two-party recording.”
He continued to insist, wrongly, that Murphy was violating the law by not getting Harris’ permission to record what was essentially a press gaggle.
Murphy then said, “Congressman, you said that you supported the First Amendment. What does this say about that?”
Harris then stormed off, telling the other reporters that Murphy “is ruining all your chances to get an answer about anything. See y’all. Thank her. Thank her profusely.”
It didn’t take long for the video to go viral on Wednesday morning. And then it didn’t take long for Harris to be skewered online.
CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted, “To say the very least on this, the congressman is incorrect on the law. Two-party consent is relevant only to private oral conversations, and he has zero expectation of privacy here. 1st Amendment gives you the right to record public officials in public places as long as you’re not interfering with their official duties.”
Everything Tapper said is true. Others were less kind.
The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell tweeted, “How embarrassing for a member of Congress to not only think it’s illegal to record in public but to try to get a reporter arrested for doing so.”
Former CNN White House correspondent John Harwood tweeted, “clown’s feeling the pressure.”
Independent journalist and former CNN reporter and anchor Jim Acosta tweeted, “He’d like to speak with the manager.”
It was just a bad end to a bad night for Harris.
The Washington Post’s Dan Merica tweeted, “Tell me you think your debate didn’t go well without telling me you think your debate didn’t go well.”
The Hill’s Sarah Davis wrote, “Harris was first elected to the House in 2010 and is seeking his ninth term in Congress. He is the current chair and an original member of the House Freedom Caucus, which includes some of the most conservative members of Congress.”
Ninth term in Congress? That’s certainly more than long enough to know better than to behave the way he did Tuesday night.
The New Republic’s Hafiz Rashid called Harris “a staunch MAGA Republican who has avoided in-person town halls since 2023.”
As of late Wednesday, neither Harris nor his camp has commented on his confrontation with reporters.
Murphy is a grad student at the University of Maryland who was reporting for Capital News Service when she had the exchange with Harris. She appeared Wednesday on CNN’s “The Lead” with Jake Tapper.
Tapper complimented Murphy for how she handled herself, and said, “I think you looked great. And how he looked, well, the viewers can judge for themselves. Cat Murphy, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Hopefully we can get you to come work at CNN after you graduate in December.”
Murphy told Tapper that she had not heard from Harris’ office since the incident.
One week after “60 Minutes” cracked 10 million viewers for the first time this season, offering some optimism for CBS News executives, the show saw another ratings dip.
According to Nielsen, this Sunday’s “60 Minutes” — which included Lesley Stahl’s report from the West Bank — drew 6.061 million viewers. That’s quite the drop-off a week after “60 Minutes” had its best ratings of the year when 10.2 million people watched. In addition, according to The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr, Sunday’s episode was the lowest-rated fourth episode of a “60 Minutes” season this century.
Once again, the NFL had something to do with it. The show that cracked 10 million had the featured national game of the week in the late window as the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Las Vegas Raiders in a tight game, 30-27. That was just the lead-in CBS needed for “60 Minutes.”
But on Sunday, the marquee game of the day was on Fox as the San Francisco 49ers beat the defending champion Seattle Seahawks in the late window. That meant CBS didn’t have a strong NFL lead-in, which likely contributed to the down numbers.
Former CBS NFL announcer Tony Romo, left, with broadcast partner Jim Nantz during a game in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus, File)
Jim Nantz, the top NFL play-by-play announcer for CBS, spoke for the first time about his former broadcast partner, Tony Romo, since Romo parted ways with the network following his arrest.
Romo was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated over the summer in Wisconsin. CBS immediately suspended him and announced that he would temporarily be replaced on the top NFL announcing team by J.J. Watt.
Then, on Oct. 3, CBS announced that it had parted ways with Romo. Aside from the arrest, there was some speculation that CBS just wanted to move on from Romo — a one-time favorite among fans and critics who had become less popular with many of those same fans and critics in recent years. Romo still had four years and $72 million left on his contract, and The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that Romo “will likely be paid a good portion of the remaining money he was owed.”
Romo had been with CBS since 2017 and was Nantz’s broadcast partner the entire time.
Speaking on Jimmy Traina’s “Traina Thoughts” podcast, Nantz said, “I think unquestionably he will work again. I don’t know if it’s calling games or being in studio, but he’s got a lot of talent. He’s got a lot of people who like him, and he’s a star. He’s got a personality that’s different, and that’s a good thing. … And I don’t know where Tony’s head is on that right now, so I’m not going to speculate, but I think you’re asking me, ‘Will he ever work again in the business?’ I think there will be plenty of opportunity for that, because he’s got game.”
Nantz also talked about his personal relationship with Romo, saying, “It’s a forever relationship,” and recounting that they have been friends since 2010.
Nantz added that he had no say in Romo’s departure from CBS. He also had high praise for his new partner, Watt.
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