Senators Slam White House For 'Petty' Decision To Bar Associated Press Reporters

“The freedom of the press is in the fucking Constitution," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said after AP reporters were excluded for the third day in a row.

WASHINGTON ― The White House’s decision to restrict The Associated Press’ press access because the global nonprofit news outlet’s editors refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” is drawing criticism on Capitol Hill.

“I guess different administrations have barred different reporters from press conferences for a long period of time, depending on who they like. It seems pretty petty to me,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Thursday.

Murkowski also objected to Trump’s order changing the Indigenous name of North America’s highest mountain, Denali, back to Mt. McKinley, the name many non-Alaskans had used before the Obama administration changed it. She reintroduced legislation that would codify “Denali” into law.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), meanwhile, offered a more forceful condemnation of the decision to bar the AP from attending events at the White House, calling it a “red alert moment” for democracy under the Trump administration.

“The freedom of the press is in the fucking Constitution and they are banning outlets from covering the White House because those outlets don’t do exactly what the administration tells them to do,” Murphy told HuffPost.