CNN denied that the Biden administration controlled who it let on its network, after a former Biden aide claimed Wednesday that the White House tried to get him blacklisted from the network for criticizing the administration by putting pressure on CNN not to book him in 2024.
“The White House pressured CNN not to ever have me on again,” Michael LaRosa, a former aide to First Lady Jill Biden, said Wednesday on Mark Halperin’s 2Way podcast Wednesday during a segment discussing how the media “covered up” for President Joe Biden’s mental decline.
LaRosa, who served as Jill Biden’s press secretary from 2021 to 2022, explained how he was allegedly “punished” for being “outspoken” about his former employer after he left the White House in July 2022.
“They punish reporters. They threatened access. I was booked 45 times in 2023 on CNN and the White House pressured CNN not to ever have me on again after the turn of the year… I’ve experienced this stuff now.”
“They threatened CNN with access, and I was noted in their guest tracking system. So, whenever someone wanted to book me, they would see a note or a flag… Look, I had never experienced the media like that until this election cycle,” LaRosa continued. “And that’s how my personal views about everything and the media and Democrats has somewhat shifted, and it cost me a lot of friends because I’ve been outspoken as I am.”
A CNN spokesperson disputed LaRosa’s comments in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“The White House does not dictate our bookings,” they said.
A former Biden White House official also told Fox News Digital they were “not aware” of any effort to blacklist LaRosa.
A Grabien search of LaRosa’s name showed he appeared on the network at least four times in 2024: March 7, 2024, February 25, 2024, February 20, 2024, and February 9, 2024.
The former aide frequently knocked the White House for “shielding” President Biden from the public during his 2024 presidential campaign.
In March, LaRosa claimed that Biden staffers made “really unethical” demands of the press in an effort to “bully” reporters into covering Biden in a favorable manner.
“They did bully a lot of journalists, and I think they would tell you that now. They wouldn’t have told you at the time,” he said to “The Young Turks” host Cenk Uygur.
LaRosa said later on in the 2Way podcast that the Biden White House did not view the press as “an advocate or an ally.”
“Sometimes I think Democrats in general expect the press to work for them and when they aren’t working for them they will come down on you pretty tough… But they never treated the press with anything but suspicion,” he added.
Fox News’ Marc Tamasco contributed to this article.