Trump Campaign Kicks Out Reporter After Testy Elise Stefanik Question

Donald Trump’s campaign nixed access for a pool reporter to a New Hampshire rally on Sunday—even though he was there to represent five major news networks.

NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard, who has long covered Trump, told his employers on Sunday that the GOP front-runner’s campaign had suddenly objected to his presence.

“Your pooler was told that if he was the designated pooler by NBC News that the pool would be cut off for the day,” Hillyard wrote in an email obtained by The New York Times. “After affirming to the campaign that your pooler would attend the events, NBC News was informed at about 2:20 p.m. that the pool would not be allowed to travel with Trump today.”

That eyebrow-raising decision may be in part due to a testy exchange between Hillyard and Trump ally Representative Elise Stefanik, who has played a major role in recent Trump rallies as she vies to become Trump’s V.P. pick.

At another campaign event Friday night, Stefanik—who has been in serious consideration for the number two spot among Trump’s inner circle—went full MAGA while fielding a question from Hillyard on E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case.

“How do you grapple with standing by [Trump’s] side while a jury is debating how much to award E. Jean Carroll for being sexually abused by Donald Trump?” asked Hillyard.

“The media is so biased. This is just another example of the media being out of touch,” Stefanik retorted before tirading about Trump’s odds against President Joe Biden, dubbing the case a “witch hunt.”

“Why not believe E. Jean. Carroll? It’s not me. It’s not the media. It’s a jury that found that he sexually abused E. Jean Carroll,” Hillyard interjected.

A spokesman for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, confirmed to the Times that the network pool did not attend the event but added that the campaign does not “bar reporters based on their reporting.” Later on Sunday, Hillyard was allowed to attend a different New Hampshire rally held in Rochester.

Still, the spontaneous ban recalls Trump’s 2016 campaign, in which the real estate mogul barred Washington Post and BuzzFeed News reporters from his events. Trump then continued the practice while in office, at one point revoking the press credentials of CNN’s Jim Acosta and banning another CNN pool reporter, Kaitlan Collins, from attending public events.