White House Defends Decision To Bar CNN Reporter
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House is defending its decision to bar a CNN reporter from attending an open press event.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday that Kaitlan Collins was barred not because of the questions she asked but because of her refusal to leave the Oval Office during an earlier pool spray.
Gidley says, "It had nothing to do with the content of the question."
He says Collins "was told repeatedly to leave the Oval Office." He says she refused to do that and stayed "despite staff, Secret Service, everyone trying to usher everyone out of the room. And that can't happen."
Other reporters who were in the room dispute the White House's account.
Collins has said officials had found her questions "inappropriate."
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