With hours until the polls close, the Trump campaign is punishing reporters over critical stories either they or their outlets have written in recent days.
Politico had three reporters and a photographer credentialed for the campaign’s watch party in Palm Beach, Florida. But on Tuesday, according to a source, Politico learned they’d been barred from the event over a story that Politico Magazine had published a day earlier, by a freelancer, about a white nationalist who had worked on the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania GOP fired the staffer after learning about the views he had expressed under an online alias.
On Saturday, Axios reporter Sophia Cai was informed that she would not be credentialed for the campaign’s Election Night watch party, according to another source familiar. (Cai had been credentialed to cover campaign events throughout October.) This news came hours after she published a story about Trump’s anxiety in the final stretch.
The campaign also blew up Tara Palmeri’s plans. The Puck reporter was planning to broadcast live from the campaign’s Florida headquarters for an Amazon special, but campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita had other ideas, writing in a post on X last Thursday that she was “DENIED credentials to enter Mar-a-lago to cover election night due to her ‘proclivity’ to write bullshit. well well well.” Palmeri was previously denied access to Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally but had “received assurances from the Trump campaign” that she would “be permitted to broadcast from the campaign’s Election Night party,” Status’ Oliver Darcy reported.
The Trump campaign has taken similar punitive measures against reporters throughout this cycle, largely by cutting off their media access to campaign events. The team also earned praise for being a more sophisticated operation at the top level than they were in 2016, when the Trump campaign would deny entire news organizations press credentials for events. Banning Politico from tonight’s event suggests that, if Trump wins, the next four years might not be so different.
