Trump Caught With Pants Down as CNN Reports That Natalie Harp Triggered the WH Media Block

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2:30Michael Popok:We're just seven and a half hours away from Donald Trump versus the free press for all the marbles. Steel cage match in front of Judge Timothy Kelly in the D.C. federal court. We got a hearing at 3.30 today. I'm going to give you an outline of what's going on. And we got some new reporting in the case of Donald Trump banning and blocking CNN, MSNOW and Politico. We all wondered sitting around the water cooler, why now? Donald Trump has been bashing mainstream media, legal AF, Midas Touch for decades. Why now? What was the trigger? You know, he ends up going down these rabbit holes, hundreds and hundreds.

3:14Michael Popok:This will be the clue. hundreds and hundreds of postings on social media, going after enemies, all perceived, all magical enemies against him. Who's the person that is usually writing most of those postings? Right. Natalie Harp. What do we call her? Donald Trump's office wife. And apparently, According to CNN and Caitlin Collins, the trigger for Donald Trump to ban and block CNN, MSNOW and Politico leading to today's hearing is Natalie Harp. In fact, here's Caitlin Collins breaking that story. Play the clip. One of the biggest questions that we've gotten asked and that we've asked our sources ever since the president announced that he was banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from covering his administration on Friday was why now?

4:08The president has complained about negative coverage for decades, long before he was in political office. So why is he taking this step to block outlets whose coverage he doesn't like from covering him? Well, our sources tell my colleague Kevin Liptak and I that last week, the president's close aide, Natalie Harp, who is often seen with him in the Oval Office or on Air Force One, showed him graphics of negative coverage from Politico. Between that and coverage TV clips that the president also saw, he was infuriated, which is what we're told led him to ban these outlets from covering him on Friday.

4:44It's a move that actually caught a lot of people in the West Wing off guard, and they were surprised themselves when the president announced that he was banning those outlets. Now, when it comes to CNN and the president banning CNN from coming into the White House, from accessing Air Force One, the TV pool, which are all the major outlets, Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN, have all banded together, and they have suspended the TV pool, which means that for the time being, the president will not have a camera and reporters from a major outlet, a major television outlet covering him. That comes as he is headed to New York on Monday for the United Nations General Assembly and also ahead of his big state visit in Washington with Xi Jinping.

5:28All events that we know the president values having broadcast on television.

5:32Michael Popok:By the way, I'm Michael Popok. Breaking this news, you're on Legal AF. If you support what we do, then hit that subscribe button. Natalie Harp, the human printer, the one that writes almost every one of his social media posts that, according to reporters like Maggie Haberman, has left him what we can call love notes. I miss you. You're everything to me. You're the air that I breathe. Sounds like a really sappy 1970s love song. That Natalie Harp. And apparently that Natalie Harp triggered Donald Trump, which would explain why now, as Caitlin Collins put it. Now, Caitlin Collins was on the receiving end of a little, I don't want to talk to you, which is also going to be as used as evidence today in that hearing.

6:23Michael Popok:Here's Donald Trump at the U.N. doing a little bit of a Heisman stiff on Caitlin Collins. And all this is going to be used as evidence of his what we call viewpoint discrimination against the press used against him today in the hearing. Play the clip. So it's an honor to be here. I'm surprised that CNN is here covering me. You shouldn't be here. You should not. You should not be here covering me. You said you weren't going to cover me. You shouldn't be covering me. But I will tell you, it is an honor to be at the United Nations and we're making a lot of progress. Our country is doing really, really well.

6:57Thank you very much, everybody.

7:01All right. So, Ed, you can see there the president stepping to the microphones from the press that is assembled there and making a point that CNN shouldn't be there.

7:10Michael Popok:But of course, this isn't Paul. This is just a reporter. Now, let me read to you from what is at stake here, and I can do it by reading to you the proposed order that has been submitted by those three news agencies to have Judge Kelly sign. This is what they want in the temporary restraining order. And again, a side note, Donald Trump, the great unifier, unifying the global community against America, unifying Canada against America, and here unifying cable news network, CNN, MSNOW, and Politico. to join forces in one lawsuit represented by one law firm. Congratulations, Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher.

7:50Michael Popok:You got to represent all of them in one filing. Here's the proposed order they've drafted. Ordered that the motion for temporary restraining order is granted. This is what they want to walk out of the hearing with later today. Ordered that defendants save the president, except for the president, and all those acting in concert with them are enjoined from taking any further action to enforce or implement the president's September 18th directive, it's not in writing, banning CNN, MSNOW, and Politico, including Ms. Klein, Ms. Gardner, and Ms. Hazlitt. Those are the actual on-the-ground journalists and their other journalists from the White House grounds.

8:34Michael Popok:Order that defendants save the president, meaning except for the president, shall immediately restore the access the plaintiffs and their reporters had to the White House prior to September 18th, including by returning and reactivating plaintiffs' hard passes, issuing directives to their subordinates to ensure all access that previously existed is restored, and taking all other actions necessary to effectuate this order. ordered that defendants must in good faith take such steps as are necessary to prevent the enforcement and implementation of the September 18, 2026 ban. That defendants must file a status report within 24 hours of this order updating the judge.

9:19Michael Popok:That's what they want. Now, the reason that they've carved out Trump, even though he is the first named defendant, is they don't want to get into a whole argument about the power of the executive branch, the contours of the executive power. They don't want to get into a whole Supreme Court fight about trying to clip the wings of the executive, but they're going to the other members of the executive branch and telling them they cannot effectuate that order. Very similar to an order that was issued in 2018 by the same judge, Judge Kelly, very smart here, by Judge Kelly to put Jim Acosta of CNN at the time back into his chair and get his credentials back.

10:04Michael Popok:Now, here's the arguments that are being raised in the by the CNN mainstream media side at later today's hearing, which programming note, I will be phoning into the hearing. I will be getting as much information as I can from the hearing, and I will be doing a follow-up report later this afternoon about the results of the hearing. Here's what it says in the filing. There could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment than what the president has done. This is page one. Presidents from the earliest days of the republic have disagreed with and complained about the tenor and content of press coverage of their administrations.

10:44Michael Popok:But as the Supreme Court has recognized, the First Amendment, including its guarantee of a free press, reflects a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on the government. What Donald Trump has done instead, which will be another exhibit in the hearing later today, is set up Trump TV. Now, he had threatened to do Trump TV when he opened up Truth Social, his social media platform. But now he's doing it with all sorts of bells and whistles.

11:18Michael Popok:A YouTube channel, I assure you, and I looked at the subscriber base, nobody is watching. And it has no, if you're looking for what you've come to expect from legal AF in the content on Trump TV, forget it. There's no programming guide. There's no lower thirds. There's no notes. There's no nothing. It's just a feed, a live feed of whatever they feel like dumping onto you. And it moves back in time. I feel like I'm watching an HBO television show. It moves back and forth from time, from earlier in the administration, later in the administration. You have no idea where you are, who you are, or what you're being told at any given time.

11:57Michael Popok:It's just a complete vomitous dump of the Trump administration and its rapid response team onto the eyeballs of the American public, like hoping nobody will notice that the mainstream media and their commentary and their analysis and their research is missing or ours. So we're going to get a report a little bit later today, and I will bring it to you about what the judge does. My prediction, he's going to find that there's been at least a Fifth Amendment violation, that the property and liberty interests of these channels have been ripped away from them without due process. This is how he analyzed the case under Jim Acosta.

12:39Michael Popok:And I know the lawyers from Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher are using similar arguments. He'll also, I believe, find that the First Amendment has been violated because it's viewpoint retaliation. And I think all they got to do is point to and just bring into the courtroom a laptop and start playing clips of Donald Trump in the last couple of days, if not since the start of his administration. Here's one from today. Play the clip. So, but they said we will not cover Trump. This is something you don't have to know about. You won't have this problem. But, you know, we have a lot of fake news. And I think when news is fake and it's actually dangerous, I think I have a right to clear it out.

13:15How was it dangerous?

13:16Michael Popok:So we'll follow it all right here. You're on the Legal AF YouTube channel. Thank you so much for celebrating our two-year birthday and anniversary here with me and helping to grow our channel. We grew by another 20 ,000 subscribers in the last week or two. And with your help, we're going to hit our mark of 1.3 million by the midterms. If you like us, if you follow us, join us and hit that free subscribe button. Until my next report, this is Michael Popok on Legal AF. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack.

13:57Michael Popok:You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.