The last four years have laid waste to many of the norms and supposedly uncrossable lines of American politics. But few scenes encapsulate how ridiculous things have gotten like the spat that led to the White House suspending Playboy White House reporter Brian Karem’s press pass.
A judge ruled Tuesday that the White House must return Karem’s pass — but not before laying out in excruciating detail exactly how we arrived at that point: to wit, a confrontation between him and former White House aide Sebastian Gorka.
The White House Rose Garden was particularly ripe for such a scene July 11, as right-wing “influencers” were invited to meet with Trump before the news conference and then allowed to attend it alongside the mainstream media that many of them deride as “fake news.”
Here’s what followed, according to the judge’s ruling, including the original citations. You can click on the yellow highlights to read my annotations via Genius.
View the complete September 4 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.