CNN Reporter Denied White House Access

Just to give you a little bit of context, I have covered the White House for CNN in

some capacity since the Obama administration in 2015, first as a

producer and now as a reporter. And every day that I come

here to do my job at the White House, I arrive here at this intersection,

17th Street Northwest and Pennsylvania Avenue.

I go through a checkpoint right behind me with Secret Service.

I show them my hard pass, and then I walk past the Eisenhower

Executive Office Building and into the northwest gate.

There I put my stuff through essentially what looks like airport security

conveyor belt, and then I tap my badge onto a card

reader.

I type in a four-digit PIN. I did all of that today.

The only difference is that there was a group of cameras waiting outside

that gate to watch me walk in, and also there was a military band

practicing

ahead of a China sta- state visit expected later this week,

playing Battle

Hymn of the Republic, rehearsing from the White House north

grounds. So I walk in, I tap my badge, and it beeps a

couple of different times. It turns red, blue, and green, and it

didn't accept my PIN number. The Secret Service agent in the guard

house

with whom I have been friendly in the past asked to see my

badge, and I handed it over to him. He told me that it had been

deactivated. I asked him if he could provide an explanation as to

why it had been deactivated. He said he had no further information.

I asked him once more if he had any more details he could share

with me, and he

said that I should be referred to the White House Press

Office to the wranglers for more information.

I asked if I could have the badge back. He said he would be keeping it.

He did, however, hand me back this clear case with a

lanyard that

it came in. I also collected my things and then returned out the gate that

I had come through. Um, but we had heard President Trump

earlier this week say that he was going to ban

CNN,MSNow, and Politico from White Hou- the White House grounds, the

president clearly following up on that promise.

But one thing that I had reported was that sources at the White House

were unaware that this was happening.

They were not given a heads-up ahead-