Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that the president possesses the legal right to limit which members of the press may access the White House and Air Force One. Blanche argued that reporting which is one sided constitutes a national security risk, creating a legitimate basis for the administration to bar specific outlets from government facilities. This legal stance provides a formal defense for the administration's control over press accesses during presidential travel.

The justification follows the decision to block CNN from traveling to Knoxville for a college football game on September 26, despite a federal judge's order that week restoring the network's access to White House grounds on due process grounds. While the ruling returned ground passes to reporters, the administration treated Air Force One as a separate jurisdiction and replaced CNN's television pool duties with seats for Real America's Voice. Former Press Secretary Sean Spicer later accused CNN of applying a double standard to the restrictions.