MANCHESTER, N.H. — Donald Trump said Monday his presidential campaign is revoking credentials provided to The Washington Post.
Trump wrote on his Facebook page, "Based on the incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting of the record setting Trump campaign, we are hereby revoking the press credentials of the phoney and dishonest Washington Post."
He wrote that he's "no fan of" President Barack Obama, but faulted the Post for a headline posted Monday that he said read, "Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shooting."
The headline on the story Monday afternoon read, "Donald Trump seems to connect President Obama to Orlando shooting."
Trump said in an interview on Fox News Channel Monday morning that when it comes to fighting terrorism, the president "doesn't get it or, or he gets it better than anybody understands."
Post spokeswoman Kristine Coratti Kelly said in an email the headline was changed shortly after the story posted "to more properly reflect what Trump said." She added, "We did so on our own; the Trump campaign never contacted us about it."
A Post photographer and reporter attended Trump's speech in New Hampshire Monday afternoon without issue.
In a statement, Post editor Martin Baron said Trump's decision to revoke the paper's press credentials "is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press."
"When coverage doesn't correspond to what the candidate wants it to be, then a news organization is banished. The Post will continue to cover Donald Trump as it has all along — honourably, honestly, accurately, energetically, and unflinchingly. We're proud of our coverage, and we're going to keep at it," he said.
Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of The Associated Press, said Monday night: "This is a race for the most powerful position on the planet. The public is interested in what the candidates do and say and having independent coverage is part of what keeps the public informed.
"The founders who crafted the U.S. Constitution may very well have disliked some of the stories written about them, but they enshrined the right to a free press in the First Amendment anyway," Carroll said.
Trump's campaign has revoked credentials from other news outlets including The Daily Beast, Politico and the Des Moines Register.
His campaign reiterated its decision in a statement Monday evening.
"We no longer feel compelled to work with a publication which has put its need for 'clicks' above journalistic integrity," it read.
