President Donald Trump blocked CNN from a special lunch previewing his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Traditionally, the president invites top journalists to an off-the-record lunch to talk about his goals for the State of the Union address.
But this year, anchors from CNN were not invited, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter who accused the White House of “targeting” the network.
Last year, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer attended the event at the White House. Stelter noted Blitzer had attended the lunch for 20 years in a row.
Other news anchors at other television networks will still attend, according to Stelter’s report.
Although the meal is off the record, details frequently leak into the media.
President Trump criticized the media’s failure to protect the off the record agreement after the 2019 meeting.
“Gave an OFF THE RECORD luncheon, somewhat of a White House tradition or custom, to network anchors yesterday – and they quickly leaked the contents of the meeting,” Trump wrote Twitter. “Who would believe how bad it has gotten with the mainstream media, which has gone totally bonkers!”
Gave an OFF THE RECORD luncheon, somewhat of a White House tradition or custom, to network anchors yesterday – and they quickly leaked the contents of the meeting. Who would believe how bad it has gotten with the mainstream media, which has gone totally bonkers!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2019
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