The Donald Trump campaign announced Monday that it would not be issuing press credentials to Bloomberg News after the outlet told reporters not to investigate any 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.
"Bloomberg News has declared that they won’t investigate their boss or his Democrat competitors, many of whom are current holders of high office, but will continue critical reporting on President Trump," Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a press release. "As President Trump’s campaign, we are accustomed to unfair reporting practices, but most news organizations don’t announce their biases so publicly. Presented with this new policy from Bloomberg News, our campaign was forced to determine how to proceed."
"Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events," he announced. Parscale did allow for the possibility that the campaign would speak to individual reporters or answer inquiries from Bloomberg News, but only on a case-by-case basis.
The decision comes one week after Bloomberg News editor in chief John Micklethwait informed staff in a memo that the organization would continue its policy of not investigating its CEO and founder Michael Bloomberg even after the former New York City mayor entered the 2020 Democratic primary. Micklethwait also announced that it would "extend the same policy to [Bloomberg's] rivals in the Democratic primaries," but he told reporters reporters would still be allowed to investigate Trump.
"The accusation of bias couldn't be further from the truth," Mickelthwait responded on Monday. "We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate ... and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign."
The Republican National Committee followed the Trump campaign's lead on Monday afternoon. Spokesman Michael Ahrens announced on Twitter that the GOP will no longer issue press credentials to Bloomberg News, saying "fairness and independence should be central tenets of any media organization."
Fairness and independence should be central tenets of any media organization.
Bloomberg News clearly disagrees.
The @GOP joins with @TeamTrump and will stop credentialing them.
— Michael Ahrens (@michaelahrens) December 2, 2019
*This post has been updated with comments from the RNC