Former President Clinton took aim at President Trump’s attempt last week to bar three news outlets from the White House, admitting that during his own time in office, “There were lots of times when I wanted to ban the White House press corps.”
Clinton made the remarks while speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative 2026 summit.
“I got news for the people who work in the White House today. There were lots of times when I wanted to ban the White House press corps,” he said. “And there’s a reason we have a constitution. Because none of us are immune from being pissed off.”
The former president said he was grateful he never followed through on the impulse.
“But I’m glad I never did, and I’m glad I couldn’t. And these people shouldn’t. The law should be what it is,” Clinton added.
His wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also blasted the move. In an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post, she called the ban against the three outlets “deeply disturbing.”
“That is part of the give-and-take in not just politics, but democracy,” she said, adding that such a ban is “unfortunately what authoritarians do.”
The fight has already landed in court. On Thursday, a judge sided with CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ordering the White House to reverse its ban on the three outlets.
Even after the ruling, journalists from the three news organizations were initially turned away from the White House. They were later granted access that same day.
The access dispute did not end there. MS NOW and CNN journalists also reported Thursday that they had been denied access to the state dinner arrival at the White House during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S. That event was precredentialed.
Former President Obama has also jumped into the controversy. Speaking at an event Monday night, Obama argued that the matter “should not be a partisan issue” and instead “should be something that rises above partisanship.”
According to CNN, Obama said he was not surprised by the ban, suggesting it was as if “the president of the United States can’t take some criticism.”
Obama also called out Republicans for staying quiet.
“You do not have, as far as I can tell, any substantial group of Republicans who are standing up and saying, ‘No, you can’t do that, because we don’t want, if there’s a Democratic president, to be banning Fox News,’ or whatever other outlets that are going off on Democratic presidents,” he said.
The comments from Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Obama put three of the most prominent figures in the Democratic Party squarely on the side of the outlets in their clash with the Trump White House.
For Bill Clinton, the message came with a personal confession. While he acknowledged the temptation to shut out reporters during his presidency, he argued that the Constitution exists precisely because leaders cannot be trusted to act on their frustrations, and that the current administration should follow the law.
[READ MORE: CNN’s Scott Jennings Breaks With Trump After White House Blocks Network From Xi State Dinner]
