Trump Bans CNN From Traditional Pre-SOTU Luncheon For Media
President Trump will speak to the nation tonight when he delivers his State of the Union speech in front of a bunch of frowning Democrats.
They will, of course, sit in their hands and I would not doubt it if a few break protocol and boo or heckle Trump such is their fear he will take an impeachment victory lap in this year’s speech.
He will, as he should, and he just fired the first shot at what most expect to be a huge night for Trump…imagine what he will say if we still don’t have the results from Iowa?
Today he fired his first shot and banned CNN from the traditional pre-SOTU media lunch.
Usually, the big media outlets will get a slight preview of the speech and topics to be discussed in an off-the-record setting, but not CNN this year.
From CNN:
President Donald Trump’s targeting of CNN is moving to yet another arena: The annual presidential lunch with television network anchors.
CNN anchors are being excluded from Tuesday’s lunch, three sources said on Monday night.
Trump, like presidents before him, typically invites anchors from all the major networks to dine with him at the White House in advance of his State of the Union address.
The lunch conversation is considered off the record, but it gives the anchors a sense of the president’s state of mind before they anchor SOTU coverage. “Despite Trump’s persistent attacks on the news media, he’s kept up such traditions,” Politico pointed out last year.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer attended last year’s lunch. Blitzer has been attending these lunches longer than almost any other anchor — 20 years in a row.
Journalists from other networks are still planning on attending Tuesday’s session, according to sources at those networks.
This is the first time in recent memory that a president has singled out one network and opted not invite any anchors from there.