The White House has confirmed that it has suspended access to the White House by CNN's Jim Acosta, its chief White House correspondent, after a confrontational exchange with President Trump at a press conference.
Acosta posted on Wednesday to Twitter that he had been denied entrance to the White House grounds and could not do an 8pm hit.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said they had suspended Acosta's hard pass "until further notice".
"President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration," she said in a statement.
"We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable.
"It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter's colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.
"Contrary to CNN's assertions, there is no greater demonstration of the President's support for a free press than the event he held today."
Acosta responded to Sanders' claim by tweeting, "This is a lie."
A video of the incident shows Acosta, as he attempted to ask a followup question to Trump, holding a microphone and the intern approaching him and trying to take it away.
"Pardon me, ma'am," Acosta says. He eventually gave up the mic, but it does not show him grabbing her. If his hand touched her arm, it was very fleeting.
Trump's press conference, coming after Tuesday's midterm results in which Democrats won back control of the House, was particularly confrontational with the news media.
Trump has previously threatened to pull a reporter's credentials on the basis of their coverage.
In a tweet he sent in May, he wrote that "the Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?"
During his presidential campaign, his team barred The Washington Post and other outlets from campaign events, typically held in venues that are considered private property or secured under a rental agreement.
But the situation is different at the White House, which is government property.
