After The Des Moines Register published a scathing editorial calling real estate billionaire Donald Trump a “feckless blowhard” who should drop out of the race, the GOP frontrunner banned the paper from an Iowa campaign event.
Des Moines Register reporters were denied press credentials for the “The Make America Great Again Rally and Family Picnic” taking place on Saturday in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told columnist Kathie Obradovich and reporter Jennifer Jacobs they wouldn’t be allowed to attend.
“We’re not issuing credentials to anyone from The Des Moines Register based on the editorial that they wrote earlier in the week,” Lewandowski said, adding he would consider giving them credentials for future events.
In response, editor and vice president of audience engagement Amalie Nash issued a statement to explain that the editorial boards and news teams work independently:
We are disappointed that Mr. Trump’s campaign has taken the unusual step of excluding Register reporters from covering his campaign event in Iowa on Saturday because he was displeased with our editorial. As we previously said, the editorial has no bearing on our news coverage. We work hard to provide Iowans with coverage of all the candidates when they spend time in Iowa, and this is obviously impeding our ability to do so. We hope Mr. Trump’s campaign will revisit its decision instead of making punitive decisions because we wrote something critical of him.
But on Twitter, Trump slammed the editors as “liars.”
The ultra liberal and seriously failing Des Moines Register is BEGGING my team for press credentials to my event in Iowa today-but they lie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2015
Trump currently leads the GOP pack by double digits, according to the latest Economist/YouGov poll, surpassing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush 28 to 14, with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker following closely behind at 13 percent.
Email Katie at kmchugh@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.
*** This article has also been posted to Breitbart's Facebook page. Join the conversation on Facebook.