Trump Campaign Says It Will Shut Out Bloomberg News From Events

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump campaign announced Monday that it intends to exclude Bloomberg News reporters from its events, including the president's political rallies, after the news organization said it wouldn't investigate Democratic presidential candidates.

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement that the Bloomberg News policy, enacted after Bloomberg LP founder and majority owner Michael Bloomberg announced he would run for president, is unfair to President Donald Trump. In response, the campaign will no longer credential Bloomberg News reporters to cover its events, he said.

“The decision by Bloomberg News to formalize preferential reporting policies is troubling and wrong,” Parscale said in a statement. “Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events.”

Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said on Twitter that her organization also would no longer credential Bloomberg News journalists.

Trump assailed both Bloomberg News and the New York Times in a tweet issued late Monday from London, after the Times' executive editor, Dean Baquet, criticized the president's campaign for the decision to exclude Bloomberg reporters from events.

“We condemn any action that keeps quality news media from reporting fairly and accurately on the presidency and the leadership of the country,” Baquet said.

In a Nov. 24 memo describing its approach, Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said the organization would continue to investigate the Trump administration “as the government of the day.” Micklethwait said Monday that the news organization would continue to cover the Trump campaign fairly.

“The accusation of bias couldn't be further from the truth,” he said in response to Parscale's announcement. “We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign.”

In his memo describing how Bloomberg News would cover the campaign, Micklethwait said reporters would “write about virtually all aspects of this presidential contest.” The organization assigned a reporter to cover Michael Bloomberg's campaign.

Micklethwait said in his memo that the organization would “continue our tradition of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation) and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries.” The policy has drawn criticism.

Micklethwait said the news organization's approach may change if Bloomberg wins the Democratic nomination and he's competing directly against Trump.

During his 2016 campaign, Trump periodically denied credentials to cover his events to several news organizations, including the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, Politico, Buzzfeed, the Des Moines Register and others after stories he considered unfair.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Wayne in Washington at awayne3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Kevin Whitelaw

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