All members of the press must take a seat several feet away from one another in order to attend The Trump Show the White House daily press briefings on the deadly Coronvirus.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham extended an invitation to Chanel Rion from the far right, ‘news’ organization, One America ‘News’ (OAN). The conspiracy minded and Trump propagandist “declined to leave the briefing, despite new social distancing guidelines from the White House Correspondents Association, which restricted it to a limited number of journalists.”
After being reminded that she must take a seat, Ms. Rion quipped that White House Press Secretary Stephanie on the Rocks had invited her to the briefing and if there was an issue, to take it up her. Ms. Rion did not realize or conveniently forgot the White House Correspondents Association assigns seating to members of the press.
On Wednesday, Ms. Rion, once again, decided she did not need to take a seat and resumed holding up a wall in the back of the room.
Jon Karl, president of the White House Correspondents Association, told CNN that its members have agreed they “cannot be in the briefing room” if they “do not have a seat” assigned on a particular day.
Because Ms. Rion violated “social distancing guidelines put into place to protect the health of its members,” “the White House Correspondents Association on Wednesday voted to remove One America News” from future press briefings.”
“We do not take this action lightly,” the WHCA board wrote in an email to members, notifying them of the decision. “This is a matter of public safety.”
Meet Wing Nut Rion:
- Peddled the discredited conspiracy theory that the Clinton’s murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich.
- Traveled with Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine in December “and advanced conspiracy theories that aimed to give Trump cover for asking the country to investigate former Vice President and Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden.”
- Recently, Rion claimed “the novel coronavirus was potentially created in a North Carolina laboratory.”
Neither Grisham or Rion offered to comment on this matter.
