Politics and the press

This is a specialized tracking project by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to collect and catalog reports of press freedom aggressions by candidates and their teams running in federal elections.

We believe that candidates’ treatment of journalists while running for office gives us insight into how they may behave when they become elected officials — and that this blog may serve as one measure to hold them accountable. From Nov. 5, until Election Day 2024, we’ll update this searchable blog with relevant incidents from across the U.S., topped off with the most recent reports.

If a journalist is denied access or removed from a federal campaign event, we’ll review the facts of the incident to determine if it gives rise to First Amendment concerns.

Among the factors we consider in our inquiries are whether or not a candidate had Secret Service protection, if their campaign is publicly funded, and who was involved with the decision to remove working press from an event or otherwise deny access.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia laid blame for the recent attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life at the feet of the news media, during a heated July 16 interview with the U.K.-based Times Radio, an affiliate of the Times of London, while at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“You’re the cause of our country being divided. You’re the cause of President Trump almost being assassinated. You’re the cause of everything wrong in America,” Greene told Times Radio’s Jo Crawford in an on-camera interview.

Greene referred to the assassination attempt after Crawford asked the Georgia congresswoman about a recent statement by Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, who said the U.K. could be the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon,” under the control of the country’s recently elected Labour government.

“Doesn’t that paint a sour picture for relations with the U.K.?” Crawford asked.

“Well, let’s talk about the words of the Democrats and Joe Biden that have also labeled President Trump as a fascist, labeled all of us as Nazis and Hitler — completely lied,” Greene responded. “Demonizing him so much so that a young man, a 20-year old, which is hard to imagine, actually climbed onto a roof and tried to murder President Trump.”

Greene then began pointing at Crawford and interrupted the journalist as she tried to ask a followup question.

“Let’s talk about people like you that demonize people like me, President Trump,” Greene continued. “You know I have some of the most highest amount of death threats because of people like you, because you choose to only take certain words from people, and then that’s what you want to report. Shame on you.”

After asking which organization Crawford works for, Greene added: “You’re ridiculous.”

“And you’re the problem in our country,” Greene continued. “You lie about people like me. This is the first time you’ve ever talked to me. I want you to know I’m a regular person like you. I’m also a mom, I have three kids, and we have to put up with the most unreal amount of bullshit because of little liars like you that take your job and turn it into political activism. Your job is the press. You should report the news. Not lie.”

Crawford subsequently posted on X that “Marjorie Taylor Greene called me ‘ridiculous’ and said that ‘I’m the cause’ of the attempted assassination of Trump. Day 2 at the Republican Convention going well!”

Greene, in a social media post last December, had called for journalists to be jailed for the investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia. “Democrats and their propagandists in the media put America through hell trying to take out President Trump,” Greene wrote. “These thugs and criminals need to be held accountable — even jailed — for what they did to Trump and our great country.”

Kari Lake, a GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona, said during a July 16 address at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee that journalists there had “worn out their welcome,” referred to them as “fake news” and generally accused the media of untruthful reporting favoring President Joe Biden.

“Welcome to everybody in this great arena tonight. We love you all. Actually, actually, wait a minute. I don’t mean that. I don’t welcome everybody in this room. The guys up in the fake news, frankly, you guys up there in the fake news have worn out your welcome,” Lake said while pointing toward press areas in Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The remark was met with cheers from convention attendees.

“You have spent the last eight years lying about President Donald Trump and his amazing patriotic supporters,” Lake continued. “Actually, guys, they lie about everything. They’ve lied about Joe Biden’s health, the economy, the laptop, the border. I could go on and on and on. But the really good news is that every day, more and more people are turning off the fake news.”

Heidi Schlumpf, a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter who covered the speech, said in a post on X that Lake’s comments were prompting boos at the media from the crowd and so she was told not to display her media credentials for her safety.

Attendees harassed journalists during Lake’s remarks, confirmed political consultant Frank Luntz in a post on X. “I’m on the media platform as she is attacking the media. Convention goers are yelling at the people around me – it’s a really strange experience,” Luntz wrote.

In an interview with KPNX TV anchor Mark Curtis in Phoenix following her address, Lake, a former newscaster, doubled down on her characterization of the media.

“At your speech in front of the RNC,” said Curtis, “you had a chance to address America at a time when America in many ways is dealing with the aftermath of the attempted (Trump) assassination, and yet you chose to attack the media rather than talk about coming together as a country. Don’t you think political rhetoric like that is also damaging? I mean, this is an industry, Kari, that put food on your table for years.”

“The country is much more united than you report,” Lake responded. “And sadly, you guys want to keep stoking hatred toward the people who are with President Trump and support him. We’ve watched an eight-year smear campaign at the hands of the media against President Trump.”

The safety of journalists who cover party conventions is a perennial concern for news organizations and professional journalism associations.

“We call on all who are attending the convention, as participants or protestors to let us do our jobs safely on behalf of the American people who have every right to know the details of one of the biggest political events of the election,” National Press Club president Emily Wilkins said in a statement issued before the convention, which was held July 15-18. “We call upon those who speak from the podium at the convention to refrain from language that could inflame those in the streets against journalists.”

Sen. J.D. Vance, newly named as Donald Trump’s running mate, used a July 15 Fox News interview to blame the media for highly critical statements the Ohio Republican made about the former president when Trump was running for office in 2016.

Among the disparaging comments made by Vance was a comparison of Trump with Adolf Hitler and a reference to Trump as “cultural heroin.”

In the July 15 interview, conducted hours after Trump announced that he was tapping the 39-year-old senator for his ticket, Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Vance about his past comments.

“I bought into the media’s lies and distortions. I bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy,” Vance said during the interview. “It was a joke. Joe Biden is the one who is trying to throw his political opposition in jail. Joe Biden is the one trying to undermine American law and order. President Trump did a really good job.”

While several of Vance’s criticisms were aired in 2016, his comparison of Trump to Hitler came to light in 2022, while Vance was a candidate for the U.S. Senate and after Trump had endorsed his bid.

The Ohio Capital Journal reported that Josh McLaurin, who attended Yale Law School with Vance and who was then a Democratic state representative in Georgia, published a screenshot of a 2016 conversation in which Vance compared Trump to Adolf Hitler.

“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” he wrote privately to McLaurin, who is now a state senator in Georgia.

In a statement to the Ohio Capital Journal at the time, Vance’s then-campaign manager Jordan Wiggins characterized the comment about Trump as old news.

“It’s laughable that the media treats J.D. not liking Trump six years ago as some sort of breaking news, when they’ve already covered it to death since this race began,” Wiggins wrote. “Clearly, President Trump trusts that J.D. is a genuine convert, as out of all the Republican candidates running, he endorsed J.D. and concluded that he is the strongest America First conservative in the race.”

After Vance clinched the Republican nomination for the seat, he told Fox News that he had a “change of heart” on Trump.

“When you have a change of heart, when you have a change of mind, you should just be honest about it. When the facts change, you should change your mind in this country,” Vance said.

“Trump was a great president. I think it’s great for the people of Ohio,” he added. “And I think it’s actually refreshing for a person who’s running for political office to not try to hide or pretend they didn’t say something and say, ‘Yeah, I didn’t like him in 2016. I liked him now because he was a great president.’ It's really that simple.”

At least three journalists have been stripped of their press credentials for Donald Trump campaign events in recent months as apparent punitive measures for unfavorable coverage, according to a published report.

Vanity Fair’s Charlotte Klein wrote April 19 that Washington Post national political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf has not been able to enter Trump campaign events as credentialed media since February.

The campaign had asked Arnsdorf to change the title of his upcoming book, “Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy,” which was published in early April. When Arnsdorf didn’t acquiesce, the campaign cut off his press access, reported Klein. He has since covered events from the section reserved for the general public, according to Vanity Fair.

Arnsdorf did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment. In a statement to the Tracker, a Washington Post spokesperson said the publication “will continue to fairly, accurately and independently report on the presidential campaign, including candidates' rallies and other events.”

Vanity Fair, citing multiple sources, reported that the campaign has taken “similar punitive measures” in recent weeks against an Axios reporter and Brian Stelter, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, as well as at least one other Post reporter.

According to the magazine, the Trump campaign granted press credentials to an Axios reporter, but revoked them after Axios published an article on the Republican National Committee’s struggle to build staff in swing states.

The Axios reporter is not named by Vanity Fair. Axios did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.

Stelter confirmed in an April 19 post on his X account, in which he shared Klein’s article, that he was denied press credentials for Trump’s recent rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

“Folks asking why I wanted Trump rally press credentials: It’s really valuable for reporters and analysts to see candidates up close,” Stelter said in a reply to his post.

Stelter did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.

In a statement to Vanity Fair, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said that, “Nobody has been denied access to our events” and that the campaign has “been the most press-friendly and accessible in modern history.”

Trump has a history of revoking press credentials for news outlets for coverage perceived as unfavorable to him, both as a candidate and during his tenure as president. Earlier this year, for instance, two journalists were told they could not be credentialed for a Trump rally in Iowa, although they were ultimately approved.

And during the 2020 campaign, the Trump team pulled a New York Times journalist from another rally, barred BuzzFeed staff from a caucus watch party, removed a Bloomberg reporter from a news conference after having said it would not credential Bloomberg News journalists, and banned reporters from multiple outlets from a third rally.

A reporter for online news outlet The Colorado Sun was escorted by law enforcement from an assembly of the Colorado Republican Party on April 6 for allegedly unfavorable coverage.

Sandra Fish has covered Colorado politics since 1982 and attended conventions of both major parties. But according to an account in The Colorado Sun, during the early hours of April 6, she received a text message from party representative Eric Grossman that said the assembly in Pueblo, Colorado, was not an “open press event” and that she would not be added to the latest list of credentialed journalists given access.

Grossman added that the party chairman, Dave Williams, found her “current reporting to be very unfair.”

Nevertheless, when Fish later arrived at the venue, she was granted entry and provided press credentials, which she displayed on a lanyard. Then, in an encounter captured on video by other journalists at the event, Fish was confronted by a sheriff’s deputy and a member of the event staff.

“You have to be invited here. They don’t want you here. We have to get you out of here,” the deputy is heard saying in a video of the incident recorded by Pueblo Chieftain politics reporter Anna Lynn Winfrey.

Winfrey’s video also captures the same event staff member asking for Winfrey’s credentials, then confiscating Fish’s press lanyard. Fish was then led out of the venue.

In a text to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, party chairman Williams said he makes “no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist.” He added that Fish “actually snuck into our event.”

Colorado Sun Editor Larry Ryckman said in an interview with the Tracker that, as of April 8, Fish had received no further contact from the Colorado GOP regarding her ejection from the assembly.

“Sandra Fish is an experienced, respected journalist who’s covered countless state assemblies for the Republicans, as well as the Democrats,” Ryckman said. “She's a fair and impartial journalist whose work has been vouched for by Republicans and Democrats.”

Meanwhile, Fish’s ejection from the event drew rebukes by elected officials from both of Colorado’s major political parties on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer called it “disgusting,” and wrote, “As a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”

Rep. Matt Soper, also a Republican, wrote, “A healthy and transparent republic means you allow the public and media to observe the process of selecting candidates to represent our state in public office.”

Democratic state Sen. Nick Hinrichsen said it was an “egregious abuse of power and violation of trust.”

The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition also condemned the removal, writing on X that it “undermines the vital role of the free press and directly impacts thousands of Coloradans who rely on The Sun for coverage.”

The Colorado Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists spoke out as well, stating, “The action represents a hostile disregard for the fundamental standards of transparency, accountability and press freedom.”

Former President Donald Trump, however, defended Williams’ action, writing in a post on Truth Social that the state GOP chair “is under Fake News assault because he is doing such a strong job as an advocate for MAGA.”

But Fish, in an interview with The Washington Post, maintained that while political parties may be private organizations, they are doing public business by nominating candidates on the party’s behalf. She added that she would continue to cover such political events, saying, “I’m just going to show up.”

Donald Trump’s campaign told an NBC News correspondent working as a pool reporter for five major networks that he could not attend a rally in New Hampshire but provided no justification for the prohibition, two days before the Jan. 23 primary in that state.

In an email to the rest of the campaign network pool that was obtained by The New York Times, NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard, who regularly covers the Trump campaign, said the campaign objected to his attending a Jan. 21 rally in New Hampshire.

“Your pooler was told that if he was the designated pooler by NBC News that the pool would be cut off for the day,” Hillyard wrote. “After affirming to the campaign that your pooler would attend the events, NBC News was informed at about 2:20 p.m. that the pool would not be allowed to travel with Trump today.”

The network pool also includes ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox News. The Times reported that Hillyard was able to attend another Trump event later on Jan. 21.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, told The Times that it does not “bar reporters based on their reporting” and holds some events without a network pool. Cheung did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment.

Trump has a long history of clashing with high-profile members of the press and Hillyard is no exception.

Vanity Fair reported that, during a March 2023 press gaggle held aboard Trump’s plane following a campaign event, Trump became agitated with Hillyard when the reporter began questioning him about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal investigation into the former president.

Trump grabbed Hillyard’s two phones from him and threw them, according to Vanity Fair.

“Get him out of here,” Trump was heard telling his aides in audio of the incident obtained by the magazine.

In a separate incident on Jan. 19, Hillyard got into a heated exchange with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who some speculate is being considered as a running mate for Trump, at a Trump campaign event when Hillyard asked questions relating to E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against the former president.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan posted video of the exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter:

Donald Trump claimed during a campaign rally that CNN and MSNBC “refused” to televise his Jan. 15 victory speech after the Iowa Republican caucuses, and said the networks should be taken off the air.

“NBC and CNN refused to air my victory speech, think of it, because they are crooked, they’re dishonest and, frankly, they should have their licenses or whatever they have taken away,” Trump said at a Jan. 16 campaign event in Atkinson, New Hampshire, which was broadcast by C-SPAN.

CNN televised about nine minutes of Trump’s 22-minute speech, according to the Daily Beast. The network then cut away to anchor Jake Tapper, who explained to viewers that it did so because Trump was delivering “anti-immigrant rhetoric,” The Hill reported.

Meanwhile, MSNBC aired footage of Trump behind the podium in Atkinson but didn’t show the speech.

As Trump began his remarks, the network cut to anchor Rachel Maddow, who provided projected vote totals for the caucuses before going on to explain that MSNBC and other organizations have ceased providing an “unfiltered live platform” for the former president.

“There is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things,” Maddow said. “And that is a fundamental truth of our business and who we are.”

Representatives from CNN and MSNBC did not immediately respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s requests for comment.

U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., has ended a crackdown on media access to public town hall events hosted by his congressional office.

Beginning last August, Lawler — who is running for reelection in a tossup district facing redistricting in New York’s Hudson Valley — barred entry to journalists who don’t live in his district, while restricting the newsgathering capabilities of those allowed in.

He explained the restrictions as a means of protecting his town hall meetings from getting “hijacked by out-of-district political grandstanders” looking for a viral video clip.

Lawler’s campaign office did not respond to questions from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker about its press policy for campaign-related events.

But on Jan. 5, Lawler reversed the town hall media ban, announcing that credentialed journalists will be allowed into the events and will be able to use cameras.

“Upon reflection, while well-intentioned, these rules could have been explained and implemented in a better way,” Lawler said. He also said that he would retract his policy of not taking questions from journalists at the town halls and would hold press gaggles after each event.

Up until the Jan. 5 policy shift, Lawler’s staff enforced a constituents-only standard at his town hall events. Journalists from The Journal News in Westchester County and The Highlands Current in Putnam County, because they live in Lawler’s district, were able to gain access to town hall events at times but were prohibited from bringing in cameras or making audio recordings.

A reporter from The New York Times and a camera crew from News 12 Westchester, however, were barred from fall town halls.

Lawler, one of 18 Republican members of Congress elected in 2022 to swing districts where voters favored President Joe Biden in 2020, drew criticism for the policy from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Also, Common Cause New York, a nonprofit dedicated to election reform, circulated a petition calling on the first-term congressman to let journalists into his events.

When asked by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker for more details about what led to Lawler’s about-face on press access, Nate Soule, Lawler’s deputy chief of staff, said in an email the change followed “feedback” about the policy.

Two journalists were told — without explanation — that they could not be credentialed for a Donald Trump campaign rally on Jan. 5 in Mason City, Iowa, although they were ultimately approved for passes after applying a second time.

“I just reapplied for credentials for me and our political reporter,” Lisa Grouette, an editor for the local Globe Gazette newspaper posted on Jan. 1 on X, formerly known as Twitter. “But as it sits, it looks like, without any explanation, we’re not being allowed to cover the Trump rally in Mason City on Friday.”

One day later, however, Grouette announced that a second request for credentials was approved, though she said she was still not sure why they would have been denied in the first place.

Trump has a long history of revoking press credentials for news outlets for coverage perceived as unfavorable to him, both as a candidate and during his tenure as president.

When reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Grouette declined to comment further or identify the second Globe Gazette reporter.

A Trump spokesperson commented to Newsweek regarding the denial: “What the f*** are you even talking about?” The spokesperson added: “We have Globe Gazette reporters at our events.”

But as Newsweek notes in its report, Trump has long demonized the press: “There have long been concerns over the former president's treatment of journalists and what a second term would look like.”

Student reporters working with The Daily Iowan, an independent newspaper serving the University of Iowa, were denied credentials and later barred from entering a Dec. 13 campaign event for Donald Trump in the Hawkeye State.

Iowan politics editor Liam Halawith told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he, reporter Alejandro Rojas, photographer Bella Tisdale and videographer Ashley Weil were all denied access to cover the rally via email from the Trump campaign.

Halawith said Trump’s campaign team offered no reasons for denying the request for credentials for the event in Coralville, which was widely covered by local and national news organizations.

Halawith then appeared in person for the event at the Hyatt Regency in Coralville, and was barred from entering, he told the Tracker. He said that staff at the event did not explain why Daily Iowan reporters were not allowed to attend the event.

“I was denied via email then attempted to gain access by asking If I could…enter and asked if they could tell me why our team was denied,” Halawith told the Tracker. “They said I could not attend and didn't have an answer on the denial.”

Representatives from Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for more information about why the student reporters were denied credentials.

Iowa’s caucuses for Republican presidential candidates begin on Jan. 15.

Former President Donald Trump, without evidence in a late-night Nov. 28 post to the social media site Truth Social, accused MSNBC of baselessly attacking him in an effort to interfere with the 2024 election.

In a screenshot reposted to another platform, the front-runner for the Republican nomination called the television news outlet “nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republic Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”

Trump added that the government should “come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity.” The post did not specify what type of action he hoped the government would take.

The post also attacked Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of MSNBC parent company Comcast Corporation, which owns multiple broadcast networks including NBC and Telemundo.

During the opening minutes of the third Republican presidential debate, candidate Vivek Ramaswamy targeted NBC News anchor Kristen Welker and the “corrupt media establishment” in his response as to why he should be the party nominee for president.

In detailing how the Republican party became a “party of losers,” Ramaswamy turned his attention to Welker, one of three moderators: “It’s about you in the media and the corrupt media establishment.”

He also falsely claimed previous elections were rigged by the news media. “This media rigged the 2016 election, they rigged the 2020 election with the Hunter Biden laptop story and they’re going to rig this election unless we have accountability,” Ramaswamy said.

The debate aired on NBC News.