Awaiting Judge's Ruling After Hearing on Trump WH Press Ban Case

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Anderson Cooper (0:57)

Good evening from the newsroom. A DC federal judge could weigh in anytime now on whether the president of the United States can bar members of the press, including this network from the White House. District Judge Timothy Kelly promised to respond, quote, as soon as possible, after listening to arguments this afternoon from both sides in the case, which pits CNN, MS Now and Politico against the president, who kicked all three organizations off White House grounds last Friday.

Today in court, the Justice Department argued that reports from the three created national security concerns, especially in light of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit. It's a position the DOJ laid out in a filing that reads, in part, access to the White House is a privilege, not a right. The president has found that plaintiffs have engaged in a number of reporting incidents that have threatened national security. Such reporting directly raises national security concerns. Now, for the plaintiff's part, CNN attorney Ted Butros called attention to the fact that those concerns were never mentioned at all when the president rolled out this ban. I want to quote what the president actually said when he posted about the ban on Friday.

Media outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report fiction and lies when they're covering the president of the United States, the Trump administration, or the United States of America. So that's what he was allegedly upset about, coverage of him, not threats to national security, which he did not start citing as justification until after that post. And he's kept the focus on himself. On Monday, he wrote virtually every story about me or anything having to do with me is negative, wrong, and in many cases dangerous for our country. No matter how great my achievements, they trivialize and demean. In court today, Attorney Boutreau said, he keeps proving our point, he's really our lead witness here.

What's more, the White House's own letter to Politico yesterday explaining the president's ban seems to also argue that this was personal. Quoting now, in September, 2026, Politico Playbook relied on unnamed sources to paint the Republican midterm convention in Dallas as a disaster. Media reporting showed that the convention had over 100 million live stream views. Again, Judge Kelly, whom the president appointed, but now calls, quote, totally disloyal, could rule anytime. Perhaps on First Amendment grounds, perhaps as he suggested at the start of today's hearing, simply on whether or not the ban was imposed after due process. The president promises to appeal in any event, and though he's made it clear he does not like the press, it's also worth remembering that few, if any, presidents have. And even John F. Kennedy, who had reporters as friends, acknowledged their role wasn't supposed to be a friendly one.

John F. Kennedy (3:29)

Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed, and no republic can survive. That is why our press was protected by the First Amendment, the only business in America, specifically protected by the Constitution, not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply give the public what it wants, but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate, and sometimes even anger public opinion.

Anderson Cooper (4:14)

More now from CNN Chief White House correspondent and anchor of The Source, Caitlin Collins. So is there any sense of how the White House thought the hearing went and where this is all headed?

Caitlin Collins (4:22)

I mean, the White House went into the hearing, Anderson, not with the extremely high hopes in terms of where this is potentially going, but obviously we don't know yet. And the judge has not made his decision, despite the president who appointed this judge, I should know, President Trump did in his first term. The president has signaled he doesn't think that this judge is going to rule in his favor and he's made that pretty clear.