Attorney General Todd Blanche Pushes Back On ABC News Host Martha Raddatz’s ‘Extraordinarily Disingenuous’ Comments About Press Freedom Under Trump

Attorney General Todd Blanche defended President Donald Trump’s recent access restrictions on certain media outlets during a Sunday interview with ABC News.

Blanche and “This Week” host Martha Raddatz clashed over Trump’s Sept. 18 decision to deactivate White House press credentials for CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO journalists ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Washington visit.

WATCH:

After claiming Blanche said CNN was denied access to Air Force One over national security concerns, Raddatz asked him, “What do you think the job of the press is? What does the First Amendment mean to you?”

“Well, what does it mean to me? What it means to me is not the issue. But what the law says, what the free press can do is they are free to report whatever they want. OK? Of course, they can. But when it comes to the White House, it is the People’s House. It is a privilege and not a right to be there,” Blanche replied.

“And what every American should expect is that when they are told something on any network or when they read something on the paper, that it even has a whiff of impartiality, that it even has a whiff of accuracy about what’s actually happening, and if that’s not happening, then there’s nothing— it is absolutely the president’s duty to make sure that the American people are hearing accurate news,” Blanche continued.

“It doesn‘t have to be good for the president,” Blanche added. “It doesn’t have to be everything’s positive about what’s happening in the administration. It has to be very accurate.”

“But you heard what the president said: ‘They want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration,'” Raddatz interjected, “That’s the president saying he‘s not talking about impartiality.”

“OK. You just picked out seven words the president said,” Blanche replied. “The president talks about his concerns with a lot of these mainstream media outlets. There’s hours and hours and hours of quotes and statements about that. So for you to pick out seven words and say, ‘Oh, that’s what the president means,’ that’s extraordinarily disingenuous. OK? Everybody knows exactly what the president’s concern is.”