Harris to Trump on press ban: 'Why don't you just leave?'
The Hill · C · trust 46/100
Comments: by Finya Swai - 10/14/26 11:08 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Finya Swai - 10/14/26 11:08 AM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING Former Vice President Kamala Harris ripped President Trump over his restrictions on White House press access, suggesting he should resign from office if he does not want journalists to scrutinize his administration.
“If you want to do things in secret, then why don’t you just leave the White House?” Harris said Tuesday in an interview with actor Keke Palmer on her podcast, “Baby, This is Keke Palmer.”
Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from accessing the White House complex and revoked their journalists’ hard passes in September, claiming the ban was a “result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”
“It shows the extent to which the current occupant of the White House has such a fragile ego that he can’t, as president of the United States, tolerate major news outlets listening to what he’s saying and watching what he’s doing,” Harris said.
She continued, “If you can’t stand people to watch what you’re doing and listen to what you’re saying, one has to ask — what are you doing?”
The ban prompted a legal battle and protests from major television networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — who temporarily refused to provide pool coverage of the president in solidarity.
The White House has also blocked CNN and Politico from participating in scheduled press pool assignments aboard Air Force One.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, issued an order Tuesday siding with the news outlets and extending a temporary injunction on Trump’s ban while the lawsuit over access proceeds, finding that revoking the outlets’ credentials likely violated their constitutional rights.
Harris, who lost to Trump in the 2024 presidential election, argued the restrictions reflect an effort to shield the administration from public scrutiny.
“It is clear that he is afraid that the American people, through journalists and the media, will see too much and know the incompetence, the cruelty, and the corruption that is coming out of that administration, and that scares them,” she said.
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