White House faces backlash after booting The Wall Street Journal from Scotland media coverage plans

WASHINGTON — The White House is facing backlash from press groups after booting The Wall Street Journal from a cohort of media outlets set to cover President Donald Trump's upcoming trip to Scotland.

"This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment," Weijia Jiang, the president of the White House Correspondents' Association, said in a statement.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that The Wall Street Journal would not be part of the group of media outlets set to travel with Trump when he visits Scotland on July 25-29. The move comes after The Journal reported that Trump in 2003 sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday card with a drawing of a naked woman, calling Epstein a “pal” and signing off, “may every day be another wonderful secret.”

"Due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board," Leavitt said in a statement, though she did not explicitly refer to the Journal's Epstein article.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-faces-backlash-booting-wall-street-journal-scotland-media-rcna220212