CNN, MSNBC Excluded From SOTU Briefing Luncheon

The White House excluded CNN on Tuesday from its annual off-the-record briefing with television news personalities prior to the State of the Union address with no public protest from the network or any other journalists who attended.

The Associated Press reports no news organization boycotted the event to show support for CNN.

The lunch on State of the Union day is a tradition that predates President Donald Trump. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper attended in 2019. Blitzer has been to some two decades’ worth of such meetings. CNN confirmed that none of its journalists were invited this year, but it declined comment on the action. The network has been Trump’s most frequent target in his complaints about journalists.

The Daily Beast reports Trump quipped, “MSDNC isn’t here as well” to polite chuckles but zero protests (not even by Meet the Press and MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd) from his captive audience, who were there ostensibly for a briefing on tonight’s State of the Union address but instead were treated to a lot of presidential boasting about his poll numbers and the “through-the-roof” stock market, and a lot of gloating about the “fiasco” of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses and the general disarray in the out-of-power party.

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham declined to comment about the lunch.