The pictures, this is so incredibly significant because this has never happened in this administration, not only is cnn blocked, other organizations blocked, the New York Times, l. A. Times, and politico. Apparently the White House Association is protesting and as we are getting a little bit of context this cpac, we heard from the president and he doubled down from his tweet a couple of days ago, saying the media is the enemy of the American People. His chief strategist this time yesterday calling the media the Opposition Party over and over. Lets talk through this. I have sara murray first joining me one of our White House Correspondents, why arent we there . Reporter thats a great question, we were told there was a list which is sort of abnormal, and when we went to go in i was told we were not on the list, and if you were going to have an extended gaggle if youre going to do something beyond the pool that disseminates information, you would have everyone from the news out let, thats not what the white house was doing, they were hand picking who they wanted in for this briefing, so breitbart, news out lets that maybe the white house feels more favorable were all allowed in where i was blocked from entering, politico, the New York Times, l. A. Times, all were blocked from going to a gaggle and as you pointed out on a normal day today basis this would be on camera on record briefing where everyone in the briefing would have the opportunity to ask questions, thats clear that thats not what the white house wanted to do, i do have to say its kind of unfortunate because when you think about the list of priorities that the president has he was talking about serious immigration matters, serious tax reform, Series Health care matters things that our viewers really care about and when we go into those briefings, thats an opportunity to ask about any news stories of the day and it was clear they did not want cnn to be involved in that. The story that the and white house talking when they shouldnt have been . . This is not okay. Reporter thats right, they are obviously incensed by the reporting of it. And officials held a gaggle here this morning almost 45 minutes discussing it. The odds that the story is not yet coming up, the russian contacts are not coming up again are very slim and yesterday decided to exclude cnn the News Organization that broke that story from a gaggle which is also disconcerting. Let me bring in jeff mason, protesting this whole thing. This is not okay is what i keep hearing myself think when im just learning the rest of us jeff mason, what did the white house tell you all . Why is this happening . Well, were still getting information about that. They clearly wanted to have a gaggle not on camera and not a fullcourt press today. We dont object to being briefs like that that arent always on camera but encourage them when they want to do that which is a gaggle that you explained at the top that they still do it in the press room and do it where reporters get a chance to ask questions so we have made that clear and were not happy how this happened today. Tell me a little bit more what we know. Sara mentioned some of the organizations allowed to attend. Breitbart, conservative times, i understand some organizations are boycotting like they could have been part of the gaggle but because of what the white house is doing they didnt go . Yeah, i dont want to speak for other organizations all i can speak for is the and as i said we have been in touch with the white house for the last good hour about this, and working to make sure that Something Like this does not happen again. Let me keep you on the phone i have dylan byers with me. We have associations boycotting. There are. Spicer held this gaggle. Certain organizations were told they couldnt attend certain media out lelets at least the associated times decided they werent going to stand for that and left. I have to say this is extraordinarily troubling. By the way i understand every white houses frustration with the press. The press doesnt always get it right. I understand the strategic effort to demonize the media and why that plays well with the president s base but when you hand picking which media out lets get information from the white house, press secretary, from the white house that is extremely troubling, peter baker, veteran White House Correspondent for the New York Times tweeted he covered the clinton administration, bush administration, and Obama Administration and has never seen anything like this. Excellent point, brian, and to his point, if you are hand picking who you allow to get information from the white house, what are the broader ramifications of that . Im here in atlanta at a media Law Conference and one of the big concerns at that media Law Conference is Something Like this, President Trump not just complaining about the press but actually taking action using the power of the presidency in various ways in order to quash coverage. This is a relatively small step in the grand scheme of things hes not telling cnn to get out of the white house entirely however its a very troubling step we are seeing from this administration. I remember interviewing now President Trump about this, remember during the campaign he blacklisted certain news out lets not allowing them to come to conferences, i said are you going to do this if you become president and he said absolutely not, i will not do that if im president. Hes not going quite that far today but sure is a step in that direction which is one reason why its so troubling to journalists. Jeff zeleny is sitting by, hes the one normally asking questions of sean spicer, i think its a great thing they brought in the skype seats local reporters an anchors across the country who had never gotten to talk to the white house in this manner but now we learn this news that cnn was blocked in addition to other News Organizations, what do you make of this . Reporter brooke i think it is something the continuation of what the Trump Administration views the media, the president has long benefitted from having an opponent for so many months it was his republican rivals and now Hillary Clinton, i was at the cpac this morning, it is very clear hes following steve bannon in making the media the opposition but i think brian is right in the sense we not hyper ventilate in this, it is unacceptable in every form not to be allowed into a briefing but not like people are being thrown out of a room at this point. Yesterday at the end of the briefing as i was sitting there in the room sean spicer indicated there may not be an oncamera briefing today. That was a decision made long before our cnn reporting agitated this white house. It was largely going to be done because they wanted the president s cpac speech to speak for itself, thats not unusual, but if the president is holding a press conference or giving a big speech it is not required for them to have a briefing every day but the white house clearly wants to get its point across on this fbi story that we have been doing reporting on and they clearly are upset at this and these other News Organizations are protesting because there was a blockage here, so well have to see how serious this goes if there are more ramifications from this, but look, the white house does not mind this fight. The white house in some respects the president wants this fight. It fires up his base to a large degree. This is what i mentioned a moment ago, he had tweeted a couple of days ago and doubled down on this notion that he thinks the media is the enemy of the American People. Here he was. A few days ago i called the fake news the enemy of the people and they are, they are, they are the enemy of the people because they have no sources, they just make them up when there are none. Theyre very dishonest people. In fact in covering my comments, the Dishonest Media did not explain that i called the fake news the enemy of the people, the fake news. They dropped off the word fake. And all of a sudden the story became the media is the enemy. They take the word fake out. And now im saying oh, no. This is no good. But, thats the way they are. So im not against the media, im not against the press. I dont mind bad stories if i deserve them. And i love good stories. So, dylan, let me turn to you. Out of what the president said this morning and listen, hes been saying this over and over even before he became preside but you look at the latest numbe numbers on the polls of approval versus disapproval and hovering around 38 approval so to me the American People are speaking in terms of trust and distrust, right . Who do you trust more, President Trump more or the media more . Everyone else is in favor of the media. 37 of the voters trust donald trump more than the media, the numbers skyrocket in favor of the media, thit is a Winning Strategy for the base. Jeff is absolutely right we should not hyper ventilate over this, ive tried to get in touch with anybody at the White House Press that i can. Havent had any details yet. If you look at the news out lets blocked cnn, the New York Times, youre looking at news out lets that have had some of the are most aggressive coverage in the recent days, seems to me theres a reason, again, thats troubling. And flip side you see who is allowed in, brian stelter, bright bart and the washington times, theres a team. Weve seen this administration stacking the deck with friendlier news out lets when i say friendlier, news out lets that have a point of view, rooting for the president. Cnn we dont root for any president , but the breitbarts of the world do root for the candidates and president s, theres not necessarily anything wrong, but weve seen them taking questions from friendlier out lets and thats a way to stack the deck. One invited to the briefing, cnn right now has about a Million People watching sometimes more, sometimes less. Oan is so small it doesnt have nielsen ratings and yet the Trump Administration is giving it access, when you talk about the cnns of the world you might think theyre unfair, but theyre among the biggest news out lets in country, all administrations bush, Clinton Obama would allow that access that cover every white house, thats why we didnt see president bush or before him president h. W. Bush or reagan, thats the challenge here. Were seeing a norm not among democrats or republicans. This is bipartisan in the past fair treatment of a variety of News Organizations and President Trump is challenging that by blocking these news outlets today. If we just pull back here, if we get past sort of the medias administration versus the Trump Administration vise versa, what were looking at actually is the White House Press corp. Trying to fight for the notion that we lived with for the most of 20th century, there were certain news outlets tasked with covering the most Important Office in the land. This administration is starting to chip away at that. Theres a reason of the time, that they boycotted a gaggle, its because they saw something happening there, an administration trying to shift blocking certain news medias without fear of truth or favor, and so again its really troubling and i hope when we do learn it that theres some excuse why this happened. Let me go back to jeff zeleny who has something new what did you just learn . Ive hearing from kevin lip ta liptack and hes hearing from reporters inside the gaggle with sean spicer. He said sean spicer is telling reporters inside his office in this gaggle as we take it, basically an offcamera briefing, that it was supposed to be for Pool Coverage only, that means a Smaller Group of reporters, one print reporter a radio reporter and wire service and he said he expanded it as he saw fit meaning he invited other News Organizations that brian and dylan have been talking about. Generally conservative News Organizations he invited them in and did not invite the rest of the people in. This is what happens when you dont have a come one, come all briefing in the press room so sean spicer is apparently talking about this in this small gaggle right now. And we will get more information on this. I just heard from someone else in the Communications Office that their attempt was not to exclude people thats at least one persons explanation, but exclude people they indeed have, but again, this is something that the white house does not see a problem with this. Weve seen throughout the course of this week the administration is fine with picking these fights because it a is a distraction for them and b it does infedeed fire up their bas they believe it makes us sound like we are whining about this. We indeed on a Beautiful Day in washington have other things to do but we are there to ask questions on behalf of the American People and report this, so thats a little bit of context here, but again lets wait till all this unfolds, this is happening in realtime here and lets get back to you when we know more on this, brooke. Jeff zeleny thank you. I have jeff mason still on the phone. Jeff mason i want your reaction to zelenys reporting of the white house reporting this was a pool report, they did not mean to exclude people. They dont see a problem with this. Your response to that . Well, i like being the other jeff first of all and second, i would encourage everyone not to rush to conclusions about how this happened today. Were getting information, we have passed on our sense of protest about how it was done, and i think its in everyones interest to be sure Something Like this having reporters excluded doesnt happen again, but i think for context for your viewers, it is important to know there is some precedence to do briefings just if to a pool on air force one for example, by white house officials and sometimes even the president and then its shared to the rest of america, in this case because its at the white house and on a working day where many people in the working press are available, we encourage them to make any briefing they have whether we call it a gaggle or televised briefing to be open to the fullcourt press, and thats what we continue to do. Thank you. As soon as we get more developments, hop on and well relay that along to the audience. In the meantime well talk about cnns reporting about these conversations between the white house and the fbi over this on going investigation. Im Brooke Baldwin this is cnn. Welcome back, youre watching cnn im Brooke Baldwin. President trump is once again slamming the Intelligence Community but this time focussing in on the fbi, it comes after cnn first reported that the fbi rejected a request to publicly refute media reports about campaign ties to russia. Part of the team that broke this exclusive story wide open, so pamela, what have you learned . Reporter we have learned a few things here, brooke, and the irony of the president going after the fbi for leaks today is that the white house actually held a background briefing with reporters, meaning officials from the white house asking reporters not to be named but relaying information and what this Senior Administration officials told reporters during this impromptu meeting that happened this morning in response to our reporting that the fbi refused a white house request to knock down trumps Association Contacts to russians their response to that was basically no one did anything wrong that the white house didnt do anything wrong that white house officials acted appropriately in asking the fbi to publicly knock down the reports because andy mccabe was the first to make contact about it asking for a five minute oneonone last week with Reince Priebus to say the coverage was inaccurate and at that point Administration Officials say priebus asked what could be done and spoke with james comey and the fbi declined to speak pub click becau publicly but gave the okay to priebus to say the reports were not true. How unusual was the interaction just for the fbi and the white house to be talking about this . Reporter its very unusual. The communication between the white house and the fbi is supposed to be restricted because of a decade old restriction on such contacts specifically laid out in these two department of justice memos, so if mccabe the deputy of director of involving a you will the associates in russia, mccabe said he did not discuss issues of the case but did not tell priebus, the white house says it wasnt asking about the investigation it was asking about the New York Times article, but that article was about this on going investigation thats happening as we speak in the fbis Counterintelligence Division looking at Donald Trumps associates, contacts with russians during the campaign. Pamela brown, thank you so much. Exce