NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard had a heated exchange with top Donald Trump surrogate Rep. Elise Stefanik on Friday. As a result, the Trump campaign informed Hillyard that he would not be allowed to participate as a member of the press pool for Sunday events. Hillyard shared this information with Puck News.
The Trump campaign tells Mediaite: “We don’t ban or bar reporters based on their reporting.”
On Friday, Hillyard asked Rep. Stefanik about the E. Jean Carroll case, which led to a heated argument over media bias. The incident spread across social media and was covered by MSNBC.
On Sunday, Dylan Byers, founder and senior correspondent of Puck News, informed others that Hillyard had been banned as a pool reporter and from traveling with the press to Trump’s events as a form of retribution for his recent interview with Rep. Stefanik regarding the E. Jean Carroll accusations against Trump.
In a follow-up message, Byers quoted from a Hillyard pool report.
“Your NBC News pooler has been informed that the pool will no longer travel with and take part in the former president’s OTR stops today before his Rochester rally,” said the report shared by Byers. “Your pooler was told that if he was the designated pooler by NBC News that the pool would be cut off for the day. After affirming to the campaign that your pooler would attend the events, NBC News was informed at about 2:20pmET that the pool would not be allowed to travel with Trump today.”
+ from @VaughnHillyard pool report:
“Your NBC News pooler has been informed that the pool will no longer travel with and take part in the former president’s OTR stops today before his Rochester rally.⁰⁰Your pooler was told that if he was the designated pooler by NBC News that…
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) January 21, 2024
