On Monday, CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront spoke out on President Trump’s recent media denial of press access, which barred CNN, MS Now, and Politico from entering the White House grounds. Between jabs at the President's character, former Trump White House Lawyer Ty Cobb, and former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham railed against Trump’s foul play to the First Amendment. Burnett even went so far as to question his behavior and ‘state of mind.’
Burnett led the segment with framed questions, and succeeded with her guests’ molded arguments, which began with Burnett reading Trump’s recent tweet on TruthSocial:
Trump goes and posts this 300-plus word post tonight. There's, as I said, there's capitalizations in there. There's not much punctuation. He says, “Virtually every story about me or anything having to do with me is negative, wrong, and in many cases all caps dangerous for our country. No matter how great my achievements, they trivialize and demean, why should I have to give access to such people?”
Chiming in on Trump’s sensitive attitude toward the liberal press, Cobb made it known of his own thoughts on the President. “I mean, that's a consequence of his malignant narcissism. Anything, any criticism is personal. It creates an enemy. And he can't -- he just is very thin skinned. He really can't take it.”
Cobb led this discussion into the rising cost of inflation due to the war in Iran and the pressures it places on everyday Americans, as well as Trump’s apparent position in the whole situation (Click “expand”):
You know, it's not -- it's not negative. It's just real to say that diesel is approaching $7 a gallon. It's not negative. It's just real to say that Republicans are reeling and that his polls are in the low 30s now. It's not negative. It's real that he traded 29,000 individual stock trades since he's taken office, more than the combined total of senators and congressmen together. You know, these are, these are facts.
You know, he's flailing. He's doing unconstitutional things from birthright citizenship to tariffs to the post office. So, you know, the fact that these stories are negative is merely because that they accurately reflect the assault that he is committing on the Constitution.
Burnett then leveraged Newsmax’s lack of audio coverage of the White House helipad ribbon cutting ceremony (Click “expand”):
BURNETT: You know, Stephanie, there was no audio on that White House live feed, Newsmax pointing out his ban is backfiring. You could hear them actually say that.
Now, I'm just curious as to whether he just keeps doubling down here. I mean, what are they going to do, Stephanie? They'll get -- tomorrow, they'll have the U.N. press corps doing some of the feeds, so it'll look more normal for maybe a few hours of one day. But what does that all -- what does this do for him? Does he -- I mean, is he backed into a corner here or not?
GRISHAM: Well, he's definitely backed into a corner, but he's not going to admit that. So, to answer your question, yes, he's going to continue to double down, which I think he already did with that post talking about, you know, that they're going to appeal the case that's going on Wednesday. I think he's going to rely on appealing until he gets to the Supreme Court thinking that maybe they're going to be the ones who kind of side with him.
And if not, I kind of worry that he's relying also on his pardon power. I mean, there's so many of these things that he wants to do and courts are rightfully pushing back on. And maybe Ty can answer this, but you know, I feel like he's going to say I don't care what the court said. I'll pardon you afterwards. Go knock down the Kennedy Center or let's keep ignoring the press and not letting them in.
So, I think he'll continue to double down. He's not going to admit that this was a bad-- a bad choice.
Although CNN’s White House reporter, Betsy Klein, was approved for credentials to cover First Lady Melania Trump, Cobb saw this as another ploy in Trump’s attempt for good press.
Cobb bolstered his argument, in which even Judge Tim Kelly, a Trump appointee, ruled in favor of restoring then-CNN journalist Jim Acosta’s credentials that had been revoked by the President.
With a temporary restraining order by the banned media taking into effect on Wednesday, Cobb states that Trump is, “going to be restrained,” ensuring, “this has all kind of come to an end.”
Even with Cobb’s comment of Trump not being able to sustain the ban on those liberal outlets, Burnett turned to push the narrative that he may not be in the frame of mind-- questioning his ability to deal with foreign affairs, if American press (Click “expand”):
...one thing as part of this, which I think bears emphasis, is when everyone tries to understand what's driving Trump's behavior in his decision making right now, especially given that he frequently threatens to annihilate an entire nation and civilization in the case of Iran, right? You know, what does he really mean? What is his state of mind? What is the quality of his mind?
This decision that he made about the press was made, we understand, with Natalie Harp beside him. Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff, was not present, was not there that day, so her voice was not present on this, at least in person. He does not have a sitting press secretary.
What do you read into this in terms of his state of mind and the power of the people around him?
Grisham doubled down on Burnett’s theory of Trump. She claimed his actions were due to his lack of guardrails, in which, “he has surrounded himself with absolute sycophants who tell him what he wants to hear at all times.” Grisham then took a cheap hit and compared the President to a dictator:
I think it's very ironic that he's going to be sitting down with President Xi, who is known as a dictator. And I know Trump, and he's going to brag to President Xi that he's gotten rid of the press because he looks up to people like Kim Jong-un in North Korea and people in Iran and China and the people of Russia, the people who have total control over their press.
This claim of Trump was a dictator held no weight. Yes, he did ban news outlets from the White House. Yet, his attempt to keep distance from the liberal media proved to be unsuccessful, ensuring the people still have the power to check the President.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN Erin Burnett OutFront
September 21, 2026
07:10:45 p.m. Eastern(...)
ERIN BURNETT: And Ty Cobb is with us now, the former Trump White House lawyer, along with Stephanie Grisham, former Trump White House press secretary. Both of you know so much of this from every aspect.
So, Ty, Trump goes and posts this 300-plus word post tonight. There's, as I said, there's capitalizations in there. There's not much punctuation.
He says, "Virtually every story about me or anything having to do with me is negative, wrong, and in many cases all caps dangerous for our country. No matter how great my achievements, they trivialize and demean, why should I have to give access to such people?"
What do you make of that? I guess, to me, one of the things that stands out there is why should I have to give access when obviously he's a person. We're talking about the freedom of the press and the executive branch.
TY COBB, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: Right. That's the way he views things. You know, it's all personal to Trump. I mean, that's a consequence of his malignant narcissism. Anything, any criticism is personal. It creates an enemy. And he can't -- he just is very thin skinned. He really can't take it.
You know, it's not -- it's not negative. It's just real to say that diesel is approaching $7 a gallon. It's not negative. It's just real to say that Republicans are reeling and that his polls are in the low 30s now. It's not negative. It's real that he traded 29,000 individual stock trades since he's taken office, more than the combined total of senators and congressmen together. You know, these are, these are facts.
You know, he's flailing. He's doing unconstitutional things from birthright citizenship to tariffs to the post office. So, you know, the fact that these stories are negative is merely because that they accurately reflect the assault that he is committing on the Constitution.
BURNETT: You know, Stephanie, there was no audio on that White House live feed, Newsmax pointing out his ban is backfiring. You could hear them actually say that.
Now, I'm just curious as to whether he just keeps doubling down here. I mean, what are they going to do, Stephanie? They'll get -- tomorrow, they'll have the U.N. press corps doing some of the feeds, so it'll look more normal for maybe a few hours of one day. But what does that all -- what does this do for him? Does he -- I mean, is he backed into a corner here or not?
STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, he's definitely backed into a corner, but he's not going to admit that. So, to answer your question, yes, he's going to continue to double down, which I think he already did with that post talking about, you know, that they're going to appeal the case that's going on Wednesday. I think he's going to rely on appealing until he gets to the Supreme Court thinking that maybe they're going to be the ones who kind of side with him.
And if not, I kind of worry that he's relying also on his pardon power. I mean, there's so many of these things that he wants to do and courts are rightfully pushing back on. And maybe Ty can answer this, but you know, I feel like he's going to say I don't care what the court said. I'll pardon you afterwards. Go knock down the Kennedy Center or let's keep ignoring the press and not letting them in.
So, I think he'll continue to double down. He's not going to admit that this was a bad-- a bad choice.
BURNETT: Ty, and yet the first lady. Melania Trump's office has approved Betsy Klein's credential to cover an event on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly tomorrow. Betsy Klein is one of our excellent White House reporters. So, CNN is banned, but Betsy's gotten a credential to cover Melania Trump.
So, what do you think that-- that's about? It's not accidental.
COBB: No, it's not accidental. And I think it just shows how unvetted and unthought through this whimsical effort of Trump to lash out at those who might criticize him or accurately report his failing is. I mean, even his own wife can't countenance it.
But I think that, you know, we're talking about a matter of hours. I mean, you know, on Wednesday afternoon, there will be a temporary restraining order in place preventing the implementation and execution of this ban. You know, these--these actors, the judge, Tim Kelly, very highly respected judge. Yes, he's a Trump appointee, but he had a long career. Arnold & Porter, a reputable law firm, the Department of Justice, and on the Hill, you know, very smart person. He's the person who restored Jim Acosta's credentials.
And he did it --
BURNETT: Yeah.
COBB: -- for the lawyer that represents CNN, MSN NOW and "Politico" in this case, Ted Boutrous, who's an excellent lawyer.
So, you know, they've been there before. We know what's coming. The law is going to be set out and he's going to be restrained. And yes, he can appeal it, but unsuccessfully because we already have the -- we already have an appeal -- appellate decision in "The A.P." case. Remember, he banned A.P. because they refused to play his game of calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, and you know that that has been enjoined and that -- that's been upheld by an appellate court even though they did narrow the injunction slightly.
So, this has all kind of come to an end. And it's all partly out there to prevent discussion of some of the corrupt issues, some of the economic issues, some of the polling issues that you highlighted earlier, because we're talking about this instead of those things. I mean, this is a shiny object. where the president hopes we'll talk about this and his war on the press as opposed to his other broader failings.
BURNETT: Stephanie, you, know, one thing as part of this, which I think bears emphasis, is when everyone tries to understand what's driving Trump's behavior in his decision making right now, especially given that he frequently threatens to annihilate an entire nation and civilization in the case of Iran, right? You know, what does he really mean? What is his state of mind? What is the quality of his mind?
This decision that he made about the press was made, we understand, with Natalie Harp beside him. Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff, was not present, was not there that day, so her voice was not present on this, at least in person. He does not have a sitting press secretary.
What do you read into this in terms of his state of mind and the power of the people around him?
GRISHAM: Well, I mean, it's no secret that in this administration, he has surrounded himself with absolute sycophants who tell him what he wants to hear at all times. I know that because I was in an administration that did that to a degree, but you're right. I mean, they don't have a Pat Cipollone who was our White House Counsel for a long time who would tell me, you can't-- you know, you can’t ban the press, Stephanie, because I was tasked with getting rid of the press, too.
So, we had people who were serious and who put those guardrails up. Now, that's not the case. And I do hope, of course, that Susie or Dan Scavino or some people in White House Counsel are giving him good advice, but at the end of the day, if he sees some stuff on TV and he's in a mood and he's truly had an epically bad couple of weeks, he'll do what he wants. We all know this.
He'll post stuff on X and then everybody has to scramble to make it happen. So, on the one hand, I understand people thinking, oh, there was nobody around him. But on the other hand, he does what he wants when he wants.
And I will also just kind of point out, I think it's very ironic that he's going to be sitting down with President Xi, who is known as a dictator. And I know Trump, and he's going to brag to President Xi that he's gotten rid of the press because he looks up to people like Kim Jong-un in North Korea and people in Iran and China and the people of Russia, the people who have total control over their press.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much. I appreciate you.
