Before President Trump’s daily Wuhan coronavirus press conference in the White House Press Briefing room last Friday, a White House official ordered CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins to move from her front-row seat to the back of the room. Collins and the other reporter in the back of the room, who was asked to switch seats with her, refused to move, prompting the Secret Service to get involved, although no action was ultimately taken by them.

The move was likely in response to the disrespectful treatment by CNN’s Collins on Thursday afternoon during the briefing when Trump ignored a question from another reporter about N Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s health. Trump told the reporter that the rumor was based on an “incorrect” report from CNN earlier in the week. CNN’s Kaitlin Collins tried to interrupt President Trump to ask a follow-up question, and President Trump stood his ground, telling her, “The problem is, you don’t write the truth.” Collins continued to press, but Trump replied, “No, not CNN. I told you, CNN is fake news. Don’t talk to me.”

Typically, the major networks, like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, and even the low ratings CNN can be found in the front row seats of the press briefings.

For decades the WHCA the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which is currently headed up by ABC’s aggressive, anti-Trump White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, has managed press access to the room.

But not today.

In a brilliant move, the White House moved the coronavirus press briefings to the Rose Garden, where the White House has full control of the seating chart.

Guess who’s sitting in the back row?

Editor-in-Chief of the National Pulse, Raheem Kassam tweeted about the seating chart at the White House this evening. Kassam tweeted:

They’re in the Rose Garden today.

Not just coz the sun’s out. But because it means the WH can control the seating (unlike in the WHCA-run press briefing room!)

So CNN’s @Acosta is in the back. And it’s glorious.

CNN’s Jim Acosta can be seen sitting the back row behind the aggressive, anti-Trump reporter Jon Karl, of ABC News.

Boston.com reports – In late 2018, Trump banned Jim Acosta, its chief White House correspondent, but a federal court, acting on a CNN lawsuit, said the president’s action was unconstitutional and ordered Acosta reinstated. Trump has also taken action against Collins, banning her from an open press event in 2018 after objecting to questions she asked earlier in the day.

In comments on CNN last night, Acosta called the White House’s tactics on the seating issue “Soviet-style [and] totalitarian-like.” He said it took “almost an act of civil disobedience [by Collins and Johnson] to foil the White House’s plans.”

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