Secretary of State Marco Rubio fired back at NBC Today co-host Craig Melvin on Tuesday after Melvin pressed him on the White House decision to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters from working inside the building. Rubio turned the confrontation around, telling Melvin that some American news coverage sounds like the press corps is actively favoring U.S. adversaries.
“I watch a lot of American news coverage, and it sounds in some cases like they’re rooting for Iran,” Rubio said. “It sounds like they highlight anything Iran says in all their public statements as true and they downplay everything American officials say as wrong.”
Rubio and Melvin Clash Over the White House Access Decision
Melvin asked Rubio directly whether media outlets should face a ban simply because the president dislikes their coverage. Rubio disputed the word “banned,” drawing a firm line between barring outlets from the White House workspace and shutting down news organizations entirely.
“We’re not closing CNN,” Rubio said. There aren’t a bunch of police officers or soldiers kicking down the doors of MSNBC, or MS NOW, whatever it’s called, and arresting people and unplugging it from the grid. They’re just not allowed to work from the work space at the White House.”
Rubio argued the president’s position is straightforward. “Why should I have people working in my building and my office that he believes are not honestly covering my administration? That’s how he feels,” Rubio said, while repeating that the restricted outlets remain free to report on the administration from outside the building.
Rubio Points to His Own Open-Door Policy at the State Department
When Melvin shifted the questions toward Rubio’s own press practices at the State Department, the secretary said he holds regular press conferences open to all outlets. “I’ll do a press conference today and I imagine there’ll be reporters there, or tomorrow, and there’ll be reporters there from every outlet,” Rubio said. “I don’t ask them who they’re with and so forth.”
Rubio also restated that the White House is not arguing journalists have lost the right to cover the president, only that no reporter holds an automatic right to be “embedded” inside a federal workspace. The exchange drew attention for Rubio’s blunt characterization of press coverage of U.S. tensions with Iran, a comment he framed as a broader trend rather than the specific reason behind the White House’s access decision. “I don’t think that is what’s behind this, but there is a trend line,” he said.
