Trump bars CNN from White House press pool again despite court order

Trump Blocks CNN from Press Pool Despite Court Order

President Donald Trump blocked CNN from the White House press pool Thursday morning, continuing his feud with the network despite a court order allowing them on the White House grounds.

Trump removed CNN journalists from his upcoming trip to Texas and Oklahoma after they were scheduled to fly on Air Force One to report on his visit to a truck manufacturing facility in Denton, Texas, and a speech in Durant, Oklahoma. CNN was also barred from traveling with the president last weekend when he went to Tennessee.

While U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly's order last week prevented Trump from blocking CNN, Politico, and MSNBC from the White House premises, the president's actions Thursday are still "a blatant violation of the First Amendment and due process," said Theodore Boutrous, an attorney representing the media outlets, in a statement.

"The White House is persisting in unpredictably and inconsistently implementing the President's unconstitutional 'ban on the free press' by barring CNN from fulfilling its role as a designated television network pooler—to the detriment of CNN, its fellow pool members and, ultimately, the American public," Boutrous's statement said.

All three media outlets had asked a federal court Monday to continue preventing Trump from blocking their access, warning that "the White House's words and actions leave little doubt that it will immediately reinstitute a complete ban of CNN, MSNBC, and Politico if allowed the opportunity."

That was apparent last week, when Trump continued to bar media outlets from covering the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House and an official state dinner later in the day.

Read more: Todd Blanche Crashes Out About Media Ban After Trump Bars CNN Again

Congressional Staffers' Luxury Europe Trip Canceled After NBC Inquiry

Congressional staffers were planning to take a luxury trip to Europe—complete with stops in Milan, the Champagne region of France, and a Ferrari factory in Bologna, Italy—just weeks before the midterms, organized by a top aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Then NBC News obtained the draft itinerary for the trip, which included both Republicans and Democrats, and asked Johnson's office about it. The trip was immediately canceled.

"Senior congressional staff of both parties routinely lead staff delegations to allied countries and trading partners for parliamentary and private sector engagements to strengthen the working relationships between our countries and their key industries," said Johnson's office in a statement.

According to a staff memo, the purpose of the trip was "to engage European and U.S. government and industry officials related to the impact of U.S. tariffs and taxes." Such trips are not uncommon, as congressional staffers and delegations often take fact-finding trips to learn about policy issues. However, an ethics watchdog told NBC News the trip had some apparent warning signs.

"In theory, you want members of Congress and their staff to be going into the field and learning something and maybe investigating something, getting some up-close and personal understanding of the issue that they're supposed to be legislating on. That's probably a good use of time in a lot of cases," Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, director of government affairs at the Project on Government Oversight, told the news outlet.

"But what they end up being, or at least what they look like, is just a taxpayer-funded vacation to exotic locations. You've got the Ferrari racetrack that you get to play around on, or the Louis Vuitton gift bag you might be getting in Milan. I'm sure those are enjoyable inducements to the whole enterprise."

According to Johnson's office, the trip was canceled due to a schedule conflict. But Democratic and Republican staffers traveling together amid stark legislative conflicts between the two parties raises eyebrows. Such a trip, with the House out of session until the midterms, also looks questionable at a time when Americans are struggling with expensive groceries and high gas prices.

Read more: Trump's War In Iran Could Spark a Home Heating Crisis

Senator Schmitt's Attempt to Trap Jack Smith Backfires

Republican Senator Eric Schmitt was warned that his attempt to trap former special counsel Jack Smith might be baseless—before he humiliated himself in a Senate hearing anyway.

Republican staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee warned Schmitt that the text messages he was planning to use to accuse Smith of holding secret meetings in Atlanta were "unvetted," MSNBC reported Wednesday.

Schmitt accused Jack Smith during a hearing Tuesday of sneaking to Atlanta to meet with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade, after they revealed their affair in February 2024. The Missouri Republican claimed to possess text messages proving that Smith had plans to attend an Atlanta Hawks game, but the texts were actually about Smith's plans to attend a University of Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball game in Maryland.

The Department of Justice shared materials with GOP staff on the Judiciary Committee ahead of the meeting, sources told MSNBC. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley's team compiled most of the important information into a memo but did not include the supposedly damning texts in their assessment, one source told the outlet.

Grassley did not share the texts with Democratic senators ahead of the hearing, deepening suspicion that Schmitt's failed "gotcha" moment was secretly engineered by the Trump administration, one source told MSNBC.

A senior Republican senator also believes the Trump administration was working to nail the president's longtime foe. "I'm pretty sure the White House asked him to do it," they told RawStory. "And, probably, the White House provided the material."

Schmitt's blunder came just hours after Axios reported that the Missouri Republican was gaining "buzz" as a potential running mate for JD Vance in 2028.

Read more: GOP Senator Tries to Trap Jack Smith—and Gets Every Detail Wrong

Fifth Measles Death Confirmed in Pennsylvania; Data Discrepancy Sparks Debate

An unvaccinated resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was confirmed to have died from measles, according to an announcement by the state Health Department Wednesday.

The death marks the fifth measles-associated death in the Keystone State this year, per state statistics. At least 943 measles cases have been reported within the state so far.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were, comparatively, far behind in recording national figures: As of Tuesday, the CDC reported just two measles deaths in the entire country.

That discrepancy has sparked a fierce debate between Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the health agency's decision not to rely on state data but instead to use mortality figures from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Reuters Tuesday that the incongruous statistics could undermine public confidence and lend ammunition to Kennedy's anti-vaccine followers who would argue that the deaths were "invented or inflated."

"To the public, that gap looks like either incompetence or concealment," Adalja told the newswire.

Kennedy's dismissive rhetoric regarding the measles vaccine has left many Americans confused about his stance. A survey published Tuesday by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center found that just one in three Americans believe Kennedy recommends the MMR vaccine, despite his belated decision to support the scientifically backed shot on August 2.

The measles situation has worsened as the country enters cold season. Pennsylvania authorities reported 114 new cases over the last week, a third of which were children under 18. Overall, there have been 176 hospitalizations.

Less than one percent of total cases involved people who were fully vaccinated against measles.

Measles was declared eradicated from the U.S. in 2000, a status determined by the lack of continuous transmission over 12 months or more. That designation could be lost in November, when the U.S. is scheduled to undergo another review.

As of September 24, at least 3,659 measles cases were confirmed by the CDC—by far the highest count since 1991.

Read more: Measles Scare Hits Children's Hospital as RFK Jr. Does Nothing

Hegseth's "State of the Force" Address: A Bizarre TED Talk

Pete Hegseth's "State of the Force" address Wednesday was a bizarre journey in which he rehashed or remixed his most common talking points in TED Talk fashion.

Hegseth focused on culture war issues early in his address, bragging about firing a slew of longtime military leaders at the beginning of his tenure as defense secretary.

"I think the generals heard the message. Those who responded positively … are leading newly focused, and newly empowered and disciplined formations," Hegseth said. "Those generals who did not? Who c...

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