AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

CNN, MS NOW, and Politico are suing the Trump administration for stripping their access to the White House, calling it a -- quote -- "direct assault on the First Amendment."

In a TRUTH Social post this morning, the president wrote that the ban is not an assault on the free press, but on what he called -- quote -- "the fake news, something that's grown like a cancer in our beloved United States of America."

Reporters from the three outlets said they were turned away from the White House over the weekend when they showed up to work.

And, today, CNN was removed from its duties for the rotating pool of TV journalists covering the White House.

The TV pool announced there would be no replacement to cover President Trump's trip to New York ahead of the U.N.

General Assembly.

Our Liz Landers was at the White House today covering it all.

She joins me now.

So, Liz, what did all of this mean for what coverage of the president was like at the White House today?

LIZ LANDERS: The coverage today was limited, Amna, and that's because of that solidarity that you mentioned, that the five-TV pool network decided not to cover the president today.

So there was the news this morning that those three news organizations that were removed and banned from the White House grounds, that they formally filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

In a joint statement, those news organizations said in part -- quote -- "Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists' credentials because it objected to our reporting."

This comes as those outlets tried to access the White House grounds on Saturday and had their credentials taken by the Secret Service.

So CNN and MS NOW instead broadcast from outside of the White House on Pennsylvania Ave on a corner there -- you're seeing that there -- throughout Saturday and Sunday.

This lawsuit today was filed against President Trump, the communications director, the Secret Service director, and the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

The news organizations here are asking for a temporary restraining order in order to have their credentials restored, access restored to the White House grounds.

We're next going to hear from the court about this in a remote hearing at 3:30 on Wednesday.

But, Amna, bigger picture here, this marks another breach of trust between the White House and the press corps, as the president has continued to undermine the free press in both his first and second administration.

As you mentioned, CNN was slated to be the White House press pool today.

I walked by their tent when I was there.

There's some video right there.

The lights are off.

Their booth in the White House basement where we work is across from our space, also all the lights out today.

So CNN was not permitted on the grounds.

And for the first time in modern press coverage, there is not a TV camera traveling with the president today.

We are already seeing the consequences of these actions, though, Amna.

The White House had their own camera that was set up today for this ribbon-cutting ceremony.

I attended this and watched this happen.

There was not a boom microphone and good audio that was set up for this event.

The cameras there could not basically hear anything that the president was saying.

I will add that, once he got to New York City this afternoon, the president did take some questions from reporters at Gracie Mansion with Mayor Mamdani.

He was asked about this press ban, and the president repeated that he feels obligated not to let what he calls fake news into the White House.

AMNA NAWAZ: So we have mentioned the White House press pool a couple of times.

Just remind folks who are unfamiliar, what exactly is the press pool and why does it exist?

LIZ LANDERS: The press pool has really two main functions.

First of all is to reduce the size, the sheer number of people that are traveling with the president and in small spaces at any given moment.

And the other function is resource and cost considerations.

So the TV pool in particular shares the burden of the cost of covering the president.

Every time a TV reporter flies on Air Force One, they pay for that seat in order to maintain the independence of covering the president.

All of the five networks take on this cost-sharing burden each time.

There's usually two cameras that travel with the president, also a boom mic so you get that clean audio and can hear what's going on, usually a reporter and a producer.

And then behind the scenes back at these news networks, a lot of people are involved in feeding this out to all the other pool subscribers.

PBS News has released a statement this evening that says that: "PBS News is a paid subscriber to the White House press pool.

We join our news media colleagues in objection to the White House barring CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from their coverage from the White House.

In support of free and fair journalistic access, PBS News is not publishing video or still images provided by the administration."

The pool is there to ensure an independent account of what the president says and does at any given moment.

And, Amna, I think today the collective action of the pool shows more solidarity in this moment than we have seen in the past when the president has attacked reporters.

I will just add one more thing.

The White House seems to be trying to counterprogram this and announced that they will launch Trump TV tonight on the official White House Web site at 7:00 p.m.

AMNA NAWAZ: Just a remarkable moment.

Liz Landers covering it all.

Thank you, Liz.

LIZ LANDERS: Of course.