The legal battle between the White House and CNN is quickly escalating, and it appears that the President’s most hated network has found unlikely allies in the form of the network he’s spent the majority of his presidency watching.
FOX News sent a rebuke to President Trump this morning when network president Jay Wallace announced they would be filing an amicus brief with the U.S. district court set to hear the lawsuit over the White House’s decision to revoke reporter Jim Acosta’s press pass.
Fox News will file an amicus brief in support of @Acosta and CNN. Thank you @FoxNews! Statement from Jay Wallace below: pic.twitter.com/1EyRkho0TK
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) November 14, 2018
Following a tense confrontation last week in which a White House aide attempted to yank the microphone away from Acosta as he challenged the president on the Russia investigation, the Trump team denied him access to the White House grounds, attempted to accuse him of “laying hands” on the aide, and then released a video they later admitted was doctored to try to smear him and justify their attack on the First Amendment.
CNN quickly filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, and they’ve received support from over a dozen major news outlets, including FOX News, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post.
Acosta is being represented in court by notable conservative lawyer Ted Olson, who famously refused to join the President’s legal team earlier this year and is now spearheading CNN’s challenge to Trump’s authoritarian attempt to restrict Acosta’s right to free speech.
The Trump administration plans to argue that reporters do not have a constitutional right to enter the White House, which is likely not going to go very far. Considering all of the president’s past statements attacking the press and the anti-media sentiment he’s been stirring up, this is very obviously an unconstitutional attempt to censor a reporter over petty grievances that we expect the judge will put an end to posthaste.
We must, extremely begrudgingly, commend FOX News for doing the right thing and taking a stand against the president they spend the majority of their airtime propping up.
