Marco Rubio Defends Donald Trump as He Gets Into Fiery Debate With Craig Melvin

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had the unenviable task of trying to defend Donald Trump's White House ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico on TV.

The political guru got into a fiery exchange with NBC's Craig Melvin on the September 22 edition of Today.

After a conversation about AI and Iran, Melvin asked Rubio about Trump's stunning September 18 decision to ban the three outlets over their unfavorable coverage of his administration.

Rubio implied that "some news stations" are "rooting for Iran" in the quagmire Middle Eastern conflict, but Melvin asked him point blank, “With all due respect, should media outlets be banned because the president doesn’t like their coverage?”

“Well, they’re not banned,” Rubio tried to claim, but Melvin insisted, “They are banned! They’re banned from the White House.”

Rubio tried to insist Trump was only cutting off their access to The White House, which was not as big a deal.

“I think the White House feels very strongly, the president feels very strongly that, ‘Why should I have people working in my building and my office that I believe are not honestly covering my administration?’” Rubio said. “That’s how he feels.”

He continued, “We’re not closing CNN. There’s not a bunch of police officers kicking down the doors of MSNBC or MS NOW — whatever it’s called — and arresting people, unplugging it from the grid. They’re just not allowed to work in the workspace at the White House.”

Trump claimed that he "cherished" a "free press" on Truth Social as the backlash stirred on September 21, but insisted he was really attacking "fake news."

“It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America,” the 80-year-old president wrote. “It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”

Trump has long whined about so-called "Fake News," but never gone so far as to ban outlets from entering the White House.

The stunning move to ban the three outlets has already created a legal and media problem. The outlets are suing the Trump administration, claiming he is violating the First and Fifth Amendments.

Furthermore, the entire White House TV Press Pool, which consists of Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, suspended their coverage of Trump, leading to surreal television scenes of Trump speaking without audio playing.