Deadline Tonight for Justice Dept. to Respond to Media Ban Lawsuit

Anderson Cooper (0:02)

Good evening from the newsroom of This Hour. We are still waiting to hear how the Trump administration justifies banning three news outlets, including CNN, from the White House. The Justice Department is facing a deadline tonight to answer CNN, Ms Now and Politico's lawsuit against the president ahead of a hearing tomorrow. Already the president is weighing in, suggesting he'll lose in court. He said that's because the federal district judge in the case, Timothy Kelly, is, in the president's words, quote, not a particularly fair judge, which is quite an indictment considering he was appointed by none other than President Trump himself.

Several Republican senators are criticizing the media ban tonight.

Tom Tillis (0:38)

I think that you have to, every member of the media should be treated the same. I think you have to treat everybody the same in terms of their access to government. Now, the president doesn't have to talk to reporters if he doesn't want to.

I try to talk to everybody.

Anderson Cooper (1:03)

Tom Tillis and John Cornyn both called a quote inappropriate. Chuck Grassley said the president shouldn't have done it, but insisted, quote, I'm not saying I disagree with him. Again, today, there was no network pool crew covering the president. And with all this playing out, the president was on the world stage with a message for Iran. Speaking today at the UN General Assembly, which we're not showing, he said he was faced with a choice, quoting him now, will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world, or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Now, we should point out this is not the first time he's threatened annihilating Iran. In fact, he's mentioned the basic idea a number of times. On April 7th, he warned that, quote, a whole civilization will die tonight, unquote, if Iran did not agree to a deal.

And one thing that makes today's threat a little different is that it was made at the UN in front of other world leaders, so he's basically threatening to commit a crime against humanity at the UN. He also tied his threat to domestic politics, saying that Iran's leaders were, quote, waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don't realize is that I'm not running. The president adding, the Republican Party is running and I'll be helping them, but I am not running, which is quite a change given that until now, he was telling anyone who'd listened to pretend he was on the ballot.

As for what made him suddenly re-think that, unclear, perhaps new CNN polling out today, which finds that only 26% of Americans approve of how he's handling the situation, and 64% said the US is not winning the war. CNN Chief White House correspondent Caitlin Collins asked the president about it.

Caitlyn Collins (2:39)

Mr. President, two-thirds of Americans, two-thirds of Americans don't think the US is winning the war with Iran.

Pete Seat (2:47)

So it's an honor to be here.

Donald Trump (2:48)

I'm surprised that CNN is here covering me.

Caitlyn Collins (2:51)

The United Nations allowed us in, sir.

Donald Trump (2:53)

You should not be here covering me.

SPEAKER_6 (2:55)

You said you weren't going to cover me. You shouldn't be covering me.

Caitlyn Collins (2:57)

Two-thirds of Americans don't think that the US is winning the war with Iran. When will it end?

Donald Trump (3:02)

We're making a lot of progress. Our country is doing really, really well. Thank you very much.

Caitlyn Collins (3:06)

Americans don't think the United States is winning the war with Iran. What's your message to world leaders today? Will you ban oil exports, Mr. President?

Anderson Cooper (3:20)

And Kaylan Collins joins us now. So, Kaylan, is it clear how the president and White House think his ban on CNN, Politico and MS Now is going?

Caitlyn Collins (3:27)

I mean, it's not really clear. The president himself there was saying something that CNN has never asserted about not covering him. We've never said that. The president is the one who's trying to dictate how we cover him. And, of course, it is still our job to do so. And, as I noted to him, the United Nations credentialed us. And that is a position that we are always in, actually, every year at the United Nations, because we always know the president typically stops and speaks with the reporters there as he made his way in. And obviously, we had our own CNN camera there. And so I think in the wider term of how this is going, I mean, you saw the president having several one-on-ones with key world leaders today. He's about to have one right now with Venezuela's leader Delci Rodriguez, and he had one earlier with President Zelensky and the British Prime Minister, many other world leaders. But one of the cameras from the five major networks was not in the room for that because of the president's ban and because those other networks are standing with CNN in solidarity of that. So it is affecting the coverage of the president and the way that he likes to see it, which is broadcast on television and in these key moments where he's speaking with world leaders and answering questions from reporters. And so in terms of how it's going politically, I mean, you heard what Republican senators are saying on Capitol Hill. That is a group that doesn't very often disagree with the president. And when they do so, they often do so in the kind of language that you were hearing earlier from people like Chuck Grassley saying that he doesn't agree with the ban, but saying he doesn't disagree with the president or he wasn't breaking with the president.