White House Press Secretary Says AP Was Blocked From Oval Office Event To Hold It “Accountable” For Not Changing Name Of Gulf Of Mexico

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision to block the Associated Press from access to an Oval Office event, saying that they were trying to hold the news organization “accountable” for not renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

Pressed at today’s briefing by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Leavitt said, “I was very upfront in my briefing on day one, that if we feel there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable.” She noted that after Trump signed his executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the name change was reflected in Google and Apple maps.

But the AP — along with press and First Amendment groups — have protested the move to punish a news outlet over their editorial content. Per The New York Times, Julie Pace, the executive editor of the AP, wrote a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, “The actions taken by the White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech. It is among the basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say. This is viewpoint discrimination based on a news organization’s editorial choices and a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

Pace wrote that an AP reporter also was restricted from a press event later in the day in the Diplomatic Room.

Leavitt noted that the White Hosue deserves “the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office,” as events are covered by a limited number of correspondents in a pool. But the AP has been at the top of the list for such access, as it is one of the nation’s oldest news organizations.

After Trump signed an executive order last month to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, the AP announced that its stylebook, widely used throughout the news business, would stick with the old name but still acknowledge the one that Trump has chosen.

“Trump’s order only carries authority within the United States. Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognize the name change,” wrote Amanda Bennett, the AP’s vice president of standards and inclusion.

The AP did say that it would change the name of Alaska’s Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, to Mount McKinley. That was another part of Trump’s executive order.