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CNN, MS NOW And Politico Denied White House Access After Trump Threat; Interview With Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA); Ed Sheeran To Resume Tour In Philadelphia. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired September 19, 2026 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[11:00:50]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt in Washington. We want to welcome those of you joining us here in the United States and our viewers around the world.

As we come on the air, we are following breaking news on a developing story just miles from where we are broadcasting right now.

President Donald Trump apparently following through with his latest threat against journalists. A CNN reporter was denied access to the White House grounds after the president said late Friday he was banning this network, as well as MS NOW and Politico.

This morning, a reporter and photographer from MS NOW were also denied entry to the White House campus when they arrived to work.

In a statement, CNN says this, quote, "Early today, CNN journalists were denied access to the White House grounds. CNN's mission to report on the U.S. government will continue, regardless of any attempts to restrict physical access to the White House and other government buildings or any other attempts to impede our journalism.

We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do our reporting without hindrance or interference from the government. And this ban is an illegal assault on this fundamental right.

We will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account, and we will continue to report on the actions and processes of this administration without fear or favor. CNN stands fully behind our White House team."

My panel is going to join us in just a moment, but we are going to start with CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein and CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter.

Betsy, I'm going to start with you again at the top of this hour. Walk us through what happened when you arrived to the White House this morning going to work, just doing your job as you do every day.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Kasie, I arrived here at the White House around 9:35 this morning, and I have worked at CNN on the White House team since about 2015 during the Obama administration, first as a producer, now as a reporter.

And every day when I come here to work, I arrive to this intersection right here, 17th Street-Northwest and Pennsylvania Avenue-Northwest. I go past an initial checkpoint with the Secret Service. I show them my badge, and then I walk past the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and into the northwest gate by the White House.

There you put your belongings, backpacks, cell phones into a conveyor belt, sort of similar to airport-like security. And then you tap your badge onto a card reader and put in a four-digit pin.

Today was exactly the same. No exception. I walked in alongside my colleague, photojournalist Jonathan O'Beirne, and we went in.

There was a military band rehearsing for the upcoming China state visit, playing "Battle Hymn of the Republic". A group of cameras were waiting to watch us go in.

But when we went in, I put my stuff down. I tapped my badge. I put in my four-digit pin, and instead of lighting up green, it lit up green and then blue and red.

And the Secret Service officer in that gatehouse asked to see my badge. He took the badge. He looked at it and then told me that it had been disabled.

I asked him why, if he could provide any information on why it had been disabled. He said he didn't have any more information.

I asked if he could share some details, any more information on what was happening. And he referred me to the White House press office, to the wranglers who work with the White House journalists, White House Press Corps.

Then I asked if I could have the badge back. He said he would be taking it, but did hand me back the clear card case as well as the lanyard that it came on.

I collected my belongings and along with my colleague Jonathan O'Beirne, we walked out of the White House and back here to report on what had happened.

Now all of this comes after President Trump yesterday said in that post to social media that he would be banning three outlets -- CNN, MS NOW and Politico -- from the White House, now following through on that.

[11:04:53]

KLEIN: And we also have learned that our colleague Akayla Gardner of MS NOW, as well as Cheyenne Haslett of Politico also had their badges taken. And it's, you know -- what's so interesting here is that this moment caught -- this announcement caught the White House off guard. Many staffers in the White House, including the president's own press shop, were taken aback by this, found out for the first time via that social media post. And so it sent many of those staffers scrambling to figure out the

logistical details of how this was going to be enforced and what exactly it means. So now, we know that we will not have access to the White House campus.

There's still a number of outstanding questions, including what happens with the five-network pool that CNN is a part of, along with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. Every five days, we are part of a very small group of reporters that go with the president wherever he goes, whether that's into the Oval Office to take questions or to travel on Air Force One.

The president has a lot of travel coming up. He's going to the United Nations. He's also doing a lot of midterm travel. So we'll have to see how that moves forward. But we are asking the White House for clarity on all of that, Kasie.

HUNT: Remarkable. Betsy Klein, thank you very much for that.

Now Brian, Betsy touched on this briefly, but this is some breaking news here about what happened with Politico. What can you tell us?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: That's right. This means it's now three for three. All three outlets the president identified yesterday have officially been banned from the White House.

Let me show you the memo from global editor-in-chief Jonathan Greenberger. He runs Politico's newsroom. Here's what he told the staff a couple of minutes ago.

He said, "Our colleague Cheyenne Haslett, attempted to enter the White House to do her job as a Politico reporter, but the Secret Service denied her entry to the complex and confiscated the pass that allows her access to the White House. We stand by her and all reporters here covering the White House.

As we said yesterday, we will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights. We will have more to share on next steps later."

So I'll just read between the lines of that memo from the editor-in- chief of Politico. He is saying that he is working with his colleagues on a lawsuit, and that that will be probably most likely coming in a number of hours or days.

The only time that anything like this Kasie, is back in 2018, when then CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta had his press pass revoked after he got into a contentious exchange with Trump at a post- midterm press conference.

CNN took legal action in that case. I remember it taking several days. Maybe it was unfolding over the weekend, but that lawsuit was filed within a matter of days. And then very quickly, a judge weighed in and Acosta's press pass was restored.

So that's the only thing that's anything like this. The big difference, of course, here today in 2026, is that Trump is not just taking action against one disfavored reporter. He's taking action against three entire news organizations.

This is straight out of the autocratic playbook. People around the world recognize this for what it is. And I think as Americans start to hear about it, you know, while they're at soccer games or are out cleaning the yard or doing whatever they're doing this weekend, as people start to hear about this, they're going to wonder, what's the president so worried about? What's he trying to hide?

We'll leave that to the political commentators to figure out. But certainly, as we hear about all three news outlets now trying to go to work this morning, now all three being turned down, we know that he is matching his words with actions, and those actions will be tested in the courts.

It is only a matter of time before there will be legal action taken by these newsrooms.

HUNT: All right. Brian Stelter reporting for us. Brian, thank you very much for that.

My panel is here. CNN media analyst, media correspondent for Axios Sara Fischer, White House correspondent for Bloomberg News Jeff Mason, and CNN political analyst and historian, Leah Wright Rigueur. Thank you all very much for being here.

Jeff Mason, you, of course, have been a longstanding, decades' long member of the White House Press Corps. You're a former president of the White House Correspondents Association. We're now learning that they have followed through on their threat to revoke Politico's credentials as well.

Can you just talk a little bit about what the White House Press Corps has meant over the years? How longstanding its traditions and norms have been? And how significant this is?

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Sure. Well, I think we start with the Constitution, right? The founders of the United States determined from the very beginning that freedom of the press was a right and was a value.

And that's actually really manifested at the White House, the press room -- the press briefing room is steps away from the Oval Office.

When I've brought guests in before or reporters from other countries, they always marvel at the fact that it's that close. And that is, to me, always been really kind of a shining light of the Constitution right there.

So being there is important. Being able to cover the president is important because we inform the American public and the rest of the world about what the president is doing and why.

And not being able to do that, not being in the room, not being on the complex, prevents journalists from doing just that.

[11:09:44] HUNT: Just to kind of hone in on that point that you're making because, again, the president sometimes picks these fights because he thinks it benefits him, because he thinks that Americans don't trust the media, are going to trust him more, that it works to his benefit.

This is not -- this conversation that we are having, it is not about us. It is not about reporters. It is not about CNN. It is not about any particular news organization that is impacted by this.

It's that when you think about those small spaces, and it's been years since I worked in the -- I did do it daily for a little while, but it's been years since I've done it -- those small spaces, you are putting people with an agenda that is not the White House's agenda in a space to give Americans information about what is happening.

And without that, without that, all Americans have is a government mouthpiece to tell them what to think and what to believe.

I just -- I think it's important to underscore that, that the presence of the press corps is a group of independent-minded people who are able to see and learn about what is going on and tell Americans what is going on, because otherwise all you're hearing it from is the government itself.

So anyway, continue because this pool also and -- and the networks that are part of the pool, and Betsy touched on this. There's five television networks. CNN is, of course, a key part of it, but it also extends out to other to journalists in wires and newspapers, et cetera. And that's also a longstanding tradition.

MASON: It is. And in fact, I was just double checking this earlier. The pool was put into place by the White House Correspondents Association during FDR's administration. So it's been around for decades.

It's evolved and changed a little bit over the years. But having a group of reporters who can get in to the smaller spaces where the president is speaking was set up by necessity, because you can't get the entire press corps into the Oval Office, for example. You can't get the entire press corps into Air Force One.

HUNT: Right.

MASON: So having this group of mutual reporters, which includes the five networks that rotate and used to include all three of the major news wire, newspapers, still photographers, et cetera, was seen as critical and also as a mission to inform people and inform other news organizations who couldn't be there.

That has changed during the first year of President Trump's term -- second term, he upended the press pool and took away the authority from the White House Correspondents Association to set those rules. And then, of course, there was the AP lawsuit that we were talking about earlier as well.

HUNT: Right. Sarah Fischer, I think it's worth noting that we are seeing some criticism of what the president has done here, come in from corners that may otherwise have been supportive of the president as a general matter.

Here was Jonathan Turley. He's a conservative lawyer. "Such a move would be an assault on long-honored principles of the free press. A court injunction on such reporting would constitute either prior restraint or censorship, or both. It would be viewed as a fundamental violation of the First Amendment."

Now he was, of course, writing before these bans actually went into place.

And Brit Hume of Fox News said of what Turley said, "100 percent. And if he, President Trump, thinks this will lead to more favorable coverage, I think he's dreaming."

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: One of the things that gave rise to the MAGA movement was this idea around having freedom of speech. And what we've come to see is that conservatives in the second Trump administration feel as though many members of the Trump administration, including the president, have done a 180 and its commitment to that issue.

This is why Ted Cruz and other Republican senators are pushing back on the FCC that's targeting news outlets. This is why Fox News and other conservative outlets did not sign the Pentagon pledge that would have forced them to adhere to Pentagon rules to keep their press passes.

I think there is backlash rising within the conservative movement against these efforts to target the press.

One thing I want to note, Brian Stelter brought up an excellent point about the Jim Acosta press pass thing. That did not set a binding legal precedent. But what it did is it said, you have to have due process when you're yanking somebody's press credential.

making a comment the night before, and then having these reporters show up to the White House and their badges not work to me, 100 percent does not reflect due process.

That's why I think news outlets, whether it's CNN or Politico or MS NOW, probably feel like they have a very strong case.

And the last thing I'll say. In the first Trump administration, a lot of news outlets were very reluctant to sue the administration or the president. They didn't want to have that sort of antagonistic relationship. So they relied on third parties, whether that be the Knight Foundation or other press freedom groups, to wage these lawsuits.

That has changed in the second Trump administration. The "New York Times" has sued the Pentagon twice. The AP has sued the White House, that litigation is ongoing.

It would not surprise me if these outlets themselves were to take legal action, and that is historic. We have not typically seen news outlets sue administrations around media and defamation this way until the second Trump administration.

[11:14:44]

HUNT: We heard a little bit from Brian Stelter about what may be coming there.

All right. Let me bring in professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University, Michele Goodwin. Michele, thank you so much for being here.

We, of course, have been walking through what's unfolded this morning as reporters from CNN, from MS NOW and from Politico have been barred from the White House and had their hard passes that allow them access to the complex revoked.

And this, of course, the president declaring he was going to do this yesterday based on what he says is the content of what these outlets are producing. Other outlets are, of course, still being allowed access.

Can you talk a little bit about what this kind of discrimination, based on editorial viewpoint means in light of our constitutional protections and the First Amendment?

MICHELE GOODWIN, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, it's explicitly unconstitutional. It's unethical, and it's also anti-democratic. It is a no -- it's no contest in terms of what this means before the Supreme Court.

A century of precedent that has protected the United States press from egregious actions whether that has been egregious action coming from state lawmakers or state officials, or whether that has come from the federal government, from Nixon.

There are a slew of cases over the last century that affirm over and over again that there may not be any prior restraint. That means that there can't be anything prior such as this, limiting press because there's a concern about what press might write, what press may publish. And that's been very clear. It's textbook constitutional law.

But we have to understand that this is an administration that has made hash of what it means in terms of constitutional law. It's an administration that's been sued well over 800 times now and has lost considerably amongst federal courts. But this is an administration that has paid very little attention to the rule of law.

The First Amendment protects not just individuals' freedom of speech. It explicitly protects press. And what's ironic here is that when you look at, this is the 250th year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. There were 27 grievances that were articulated. Amongst those grievances was the king's intolerance of press.

This is why we have freedom of the press as amongst the first of the freedoms of speech and articulation in the Constitution. And it was identified 250 years ago in the Declaration of Independence. So this is chilling. It's horrific. And I'm glad that you're speaking

to this in this program today. And there needs to be a drumbeat about this because it's completely inconsistent with the notion of we, the people in the United States.

HUNT: And Leah Wright Rigueur, we've been talking quite a bit about what this means, you know, when we look back at other administrations, and there also has been, you know, comparison to and look at other more authoritarian, non-democratic regimes and comparisons to how they treat the press in light of this action.

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: So historically, one of the things that human rights organizations globally have said or have identified as one of the most concerning or alarming indications of a shift into authoritarian regimes and a shift away from democracy is censorship, persecution of the press.

It is one of the most important foundations of, kind of, democracy, this role of the press.

And so I think we've seen consistently, whether it be in a place like the Philippines, whether it be in a place like Rwanda, whether it be in a place like the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congo -- on and on and on. This attack on the free press is incredibly important for rolling back these ideas of democracy.

HUNT: All right. Michele Goodwin, thank you so much for being with us. I really appreciate it.

The rest of our panel is going to stand by here.

Coming up next, presidential historian Doug Brinkley will be here with us live on the president's latest attack on the First Amendment.

[11:18:58]

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GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. That we need an independent media to hold people like me to account.

I mean, power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive. And it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: That was former president, George W. Bush reflecting in a 2017 interview about the importance of the free press, laying out why pulling back the curtain on those in power is essential to our democracy.

Here's another Republican president, Ronald Reagan, speaking out about this very principle in these 1985 remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Without a free press, democracy won't work, and all of our other rights would be in jeopardy.

Thomas Jefferson is often quoted at gatherings such as this as saying, "We're it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." Of course, he said that before he was president.

[11:24:52]

REAGAN: One of the first institutions to be attacked by tyrants, whether they're dictators of the left or right, is the press.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: One of the first institutions to be impacted by tyrants is the press. That was Ronald Reagan, and he also went so far back as to quote Thomas Jefferson, who again talked about how he was annoyed by newspapers, but how they meant that we could function as a free, democratic society.

Joining our panel now is presidential historian Doug Brinkley. Sir, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it.

And honestly, you have been doing this for such a long time. You have such a deep understanding of the presidency, of what it means to our democracy of the Constitution.

And of course, we've just learned this morning that CNN and other outlets have had their press credentials revoked by this president because of the content of what we are reporting and writing. What does it mean to you?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, it means that President Trump once again has almost zero regard for the First Amendment, even though he talks it up sometimes. And if it's, you know, he likes the press if it's favorable, and if he doesn't like them or doesn't like a question, he punishes them.

So I think these are going to be lawsuits coming from Politico and MS NOW, maybe CNN. And it just can't stand. We can't run our country as a democracy and to treat the press in this sort of shabby, willy-nilly fashion.

HUNT: Sir, presidents frequently dislike their coverage, right? I've struggled to identify any politician who has ever been elected to office who hasn't been unhappy with something that has been written, said, published, broadcast about them.

How does President Trump's reaction to that differ from his predecessors? BRINKLEY: Trump's a one-offer. I mean, all presidents complain about

the press. They just do. But in Donald Trump's case, he started with the whole fake news, fake media, and he starts targeting reporters. He daily picks on a reporter to mock their looks or their intelligence. He feels he puts points on the board of American politics by demonizing the press.

And now you're going to this extraordinary length that just stripping credentials from people, and you're going to be hearing, you know, authoritarianism and, you know, fascism and things, the way that Trump has just behaved and I'm afraid CNN and MS NOW Politico will have to be joined by other media outlets to say we won't tolerate it, that we give people their passes back, give access back to the White House. And, you know, reinstate the status quo.

It was you know, as it was before, this kind of weird, draconian move by the president as we're wheeling into the midterms.

HUNT: What does it say to you here that he has singled out these three particular outlets? He said in his press conference yesterday that he found the "Washington Post" and the "New York Times" to be, quote, "disgusting", but that he would not be barring their reporters from the complex, although he did say that he was going to perhaps not provide copies of those papers on the White House grounds any longer.

BRINKLEY: President Trump's a visual president. You know, his idea of journalism is television, and he's a consumer of it.

And he watches all of the cable news or, you know, so-called legacy media. And it gets his dander up when they criticize him or say something he doesn't like.

And then he turns petulant. And then he, he tries to act. Perhaps he wants to be like the Chinese leader or be like a leader of Turkey or Russia, where you feel you own and control and can mold your coverage.

But that is not what a democracy is. And, you know, I have to think this has a -- in history, this can have a horrible boomerang effect on President Trump.

If he thinks he's getting mileage out of it now, it'll knock him out in the history sweepstakes because nobody in the end, in a country that loves the First Amendment and freedom of speech, likes a president who's stripping credentials for reporters for no ostensible reason, except they're making him uncomfortable.

HUNT: And of course, it's worth noting that President Trump.

[11:29:43]

HUNT: I mean, look, if you go to his office in his building on Fifth Avenue, the wall is covered with covers that feature him, right, "Time Magazine", other publications.

He was in many ways built by the press. I mean, you're looking at some of it. You can see there's this GQ cover in the top right. And this is something that he has always basked in, that he had used to make his certainly celebrity career.

How does the way he thinks about the press play into all of this?

BRINKLEY: He is -- he's obsessed with the press. He's built his whole career on media. But the idea was that journalism was supposed to give him puff profiles, put him on the cover of the magazine, say how golden Trump is, and then he could frame old covers and people would see that he's important. It gave him narcissistic feed, if you like.

But when you get negative press, it devalues you and it creates narcissistic wounds. And he is wounded all the time.

And he puts on, you know, CNN or MS NOW or reads Politico and he's starting to see Trumps, you know, all-time low approval ratings, you know, gasoline prices worst ever. You know, Trump doomed.

And it gets into his makeup. He can't handle that. So he acts out in a tantrum like way, well, I'm going to take away your access and therefore I won't have to be injured anymore by you, which leaves only, you know, people that are going to do puff pieces and praise him standing in the -- in the press room.

HUNT: All right. Douglas Brinkley for us today. Thank you, sir, very much for joining us. I really appreciate your time.

BRINKLEY: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next, Congressman Kevin Kiley of California will join us live. What he makes of members of the press being barred from the White House.

[11:31:45]

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HUNT: Welcome back.

We are continuing to update you on the breaking news that CNN, MS NOW and Politico have all been denied access to the White House this morning. All three outlets signaling that they will take legal action over President Trump's so-called ban.

Joining me now is Independent congressman from California, Representative Kevin Kiley. Congressman, thank you very much for spending some time with us this morning.

What is your reaction to the denial of access to the White House for these news outlets this morning?

REP. KEVIN KILEY (I-CA): Well, it's outrageous and it's jarring. You know, freedom of the press is not some partisan issue. This is a constitutional issue. It's a First Amendment issue. In many ways, it's the foundation of our democracy.

James Madison said a popular government without popular information is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. And the nature of the press is by its very nature an adversarial one. The relationship with those of us in government, because the job of the press is to hold folks in government accountable in order to provide information to the public.

And so the goal is not to -- or the purpose is not to be cheerleaders. And so setting down this standard that, you know, if you don't provide the sort of coverage that those in power want, then your credentials are going to be confiscated.

It very much runs contrary to our country's most important core principles.

And also, I believe it runs contrary to what the law is. And we have several precedents at this point. There's the important D.C. Circuit (INAUDIBLE) decades ago saying that once you open up general facilities to the press, you cannot discriminate on the basis of viewpoint or coverage.

HUNT: Yes. Congressman, why do you think the president is doing this now?

KILEY: You know, I don't know, but there has been a history of taking actions along these lines. Of course, we had the issue with the AP reporter last year.

In the first term, there was the issue with Jim Acosta, which that ended up being struck down in court.

And for me personally, I'm the author of The Press Act, which is a freedom of the press bill that I authored along with Jamie Raskin. We passed it through the House of Representatives unanimously.

But then it died in the Senate because President Trump, he was president-elect at that point, the very first bill that he commented on after the election was to tell Republicans to kill my bill in the Senate.

So I think this is an area where I have certainly very different views with the administration. I think freedom of the press is vitally important, and we need to do everything we can to protect it.

HUNT: Congressman, can you talk a little bit about I mean, obviously, you're not in the White House, but you are a member of Congress. And the press corps, I covered Capitol Hill for many years, the press corps has enormous access to the Capitol, as you know.

You, I'm sure, have read plenty of stories about yourself that you don't like. I'm sure you've been asked questions that you didn't want to be asked.

Can you talk a little bit about that, about what it means to you to be in that position where you are facing reporters every day, what it feels like when you're not happy about it, and what you tell yourself at night?

The president clearly not telling himself that. He is angry and he is banning people. How do you deal with it?

[11:39:44]

KILEY: Yes, great question. And yes, of course, you know, there's been plenty of times when I didn't like the way a particular story reported on something or the way that my views or actions were framed.

But, you know, we have a marketplace of ideas. And so you, we (INAUDIBLE) I use whatever channels I have to get my message out. And I communicate as much as I can, actually, with members of the press.

And I think at the end of the day, just the more transparency you have, then ultimately a story you don't like here or there that you think get something wrong, in the grand scheme of things, you know the truth will get out, or at least you know you'll have a better chance of the truth reaching folks if you're more transparent.

So I actually have a policy of I have press conferences every week where anyone, any member of the media who wants can show up and ask me questions.

I'm always happy to talk to members of the press who are always, you know, hanging out around the house chamber or catching us on our way to and from.

I have a great deal of (AUDIO GAP) it's actually a very challenging job, especially these days. And, you know, I want to make sure that I respect their profession and their rights under our constitution, even if I might not always agree with their particular coverage on a given story.

HUNT: Congressman, you, of course, are now an Independent. You had been a Republican. I'm curious what you're hearing from other members of the House, friends, colleagues that you have about what's going on at the White House and whether there's a -- what the thinking is about the level of this being appropriate or not.

HUNT: Well, I haven't actually talked with a lot of folks because the House is no longer in session, which is something I don't agree with either. The last two weeks of September were just called off, which I think is unfortunate.

But I believe this is something that is not going to go over well with most people in the House, regardless of what side of the aisle they're on.

I think that people recognize that freedom of the press is not some sort of partisan issue, and they understand the very troubling precedent it sets. If you have people in positions of power who make access, or your ability to access general facilities that are generally open to journalists, make that contingent of (AUDIO GAP) that nothing could be more contrary to what the purpose of a free press is.

And I think people understand that. And I think that, frankly, it also is frustrating to a lot of people when we have such important issues facing the country right now. And we have Americans struggling with the cost of living, that this is where the priority is.

HUNT: All right. Congressman Kevin Kiley, sir, thanks so much for spending some time with us today. I really appreciate it.

KILEY: Thanks for having me.

HUNT: All right. Ahead, Ed Sheeran returns to the stage today, possibly solo, after Macklemore was dropped from the tour over pro- Palestinian comments. What fans who bought tickets are now telling CNN.

[11:42:41]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: Welcome back.

Today, Ed Sheeran is set to resume his tour in Philadelphia, days after his opening act Macklemore was dropped from the tour for pro- Palestinian comments he made on stage.

CNN's Danny Freeman reports from Philly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So are we all asking for refunds on our ed Sheeran tickets now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm still not exactly sure what we're going to do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to go, and we're going to have a great time.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The continuing controversy surrounding Ed Sheeran's Loop tour has more and more fans thinking out loud as the English superstar prepares for his Saturday concert in Philadelphia, the first since one of his opening acts, Macklemore, was removed from the tour after making a plea to free Palestine two weeks ago.

KAREN DEANGELIS, HAS TICKETS TO ED SHEERAN CONCERT: It was very disappointing, to be quite honest.

FREEMAN: Karen DeAngelis is from Virginia and has had tickets to Saturday's concert for nearly a year. She and her ten-year-old daughter are still planning to drive up and spend the weekend in Philly.

But after Sheeran didn't defend Macklemore, she's not sure if they'll attend the concert.

DEANGELIS: We thought, what the heck is going on? Why would someone not stand up for free speech? I thought, you can't stand up for free speech, you don't want to stand up against something that's so terrible. You've stood up for Ukraine. You know, you've stood up for Black Lives Matter. Why not -- why not this?

FREEMAN: And Karen's not alone as the concern and drama intensifies. After the rapper was kicked off the tour, other opening acts for Sheeran dropped out in solidarity.

Plus, the price tracking site TicketData notes, while it is normal for many concert resale ticket prices to drop closer to the show date, resale prices for Saturday's Sheeran show are now falling by a notable amount.

KEITH PAGELLO, FOUNDER, TICKETDATA: The getting price, which is the price of the cheapest tickets, which is kind of the best marker for demand for the event for this show, has gone down now 50 percent since Monday. So we are well past what is kind of considered normal.

FREEMAN: Meanwhile, a protest is now planned for Saturday's concert. Philadelphia police telling CNN it is working closely with venue and event organizers to help ensure the safety of concertgoers, employees and neighborhood residents.

Also acknowledging the protest noting, "Our civil affairs unit will be on hand to ensure everyone's safety during protected First Amendment activity".

HEATHER PARK, HAS TICKETS TO ED SHEERAN CONCERT: I'm still going. And even if Macklemore was still opening up, I would still go like he's allowed to have his opinion. I'm allowed to have mine.

FREEMAN: Still others, like Heather Park, are not going to let the controversy get in the way of a concert she's been looking forward to for months.

[11:49:48]

PARK: My favorite part of concerts is when you go and there is thousands of people of all different religious, ethnicities, beliefs, political views and they are all there to see the same person because they all love the music that that person puts out.

FREEMAN: Now we reached out to Messina Touring Group, that's the promoter for the Sheeran tour, but we did not hear back. However, we did learn that the concert is going to be pushed back from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday night. That's going to be right here behind me at Lincoln Financial Field. The big question, will the superstar address the lack of an opening act?

Danny Freeman, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNT: All right. Our thanks to Danny Freeman for that report.

We'll be right back.

[11:50:29]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: Recapping the hour's top story for those of you just joining us.

Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico have been denied entry to the White House this morning after a threat by the president to ban those news organizations.

We're going to have new reporting on this at the top of the hour. Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

[11:55:24]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt.

It is noon eastern here in Washington where President Trump has followed through on his threat to ban at least three news organizations from the White House.