Updated ,first published
Washington: News outlets CNN, MS NOW and Politico have asked for an emergency court hearing after their journalists were barred from entering the White House for today’s high-stakes summit, despite a judge ruling hours earlier that the ban must be temporarily lifted.
There were no cameras from the main US television networks present as President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday morning (Thursday night AEST), with the news outlets continuing a boycott in solidarity with CNN.
Xi’s arrival was broadcast on the White House’s official social media channel. A select group of print reporters and photographers, known as the daily “pool”, was present.
Fox News was using an aerial shot of the White House and file footage when discussing the summit, while also covering other news stories.
While awaiting Xi and Peng’s arrival, there was a “loud disagreement” between the American photographers, Chinese photographers and the Secret Service about where the Chinese group could set up, according to the pool reporters who were present.
Judge Timothy Kelly ruled late on Wednesday (US time) that Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico was likely unconstitutional, and blocked the White House from enforcing it for 14 days.
But the three outlets reported that their journalists were still unable to access the White House on Thursday morning.
They lodged a request for an emergency hearing with the court. That request, seen by this masthead, says Secret Service agents also “confiscated the hard passes of journalists whose hard passes had not previously been confiscated”.
And when CNN journalist Betsy Klein – whose pass was confiscated on the weekend – asked for it to be returned, “her request was denied and she was refused access to the White House complex”, the document said.
CNN and MS NOW were broadcasting from the streets outside the White House on Thursday morning.
Trump enacted the ban on Saturday due to his objections to the three outlets’ reporting, though he said there was no particular trigger for it other than his accusations of “fake news”.
Following the arrival ceremony, Trump and Xi delivered statements in the Grand Foyer of the White House, which were also broadcast on the White House’s official social media feeds, but not on US television networks.
Trump noted there had been many physical changes at the White House since Xi’s last visit in 2015, and praised his “truly great friendship” with Xi.
“If we focus on our common interests, I am confident there is much we can achieve,” he said.
Xi called for stronger communication between the two countries to “steer the giant ship of the US-China relationship on a steady course towards the future”.
“President Trump and I have respect for each other,” he said. “We have built personal rapport and stayed in touch.”
Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.