Dr. Oz is asked if Trump’s media ban violates the First Amendment. He brought up Biden: ‘Didn’t speak to the press for a year and a half’

Dr. Mehmet Oz spoke with NewsNation’s Libbey Dean after leaving the White House. The exchange took place soon after President Donald Trump said CNN, MS NOW, and Politico would be barred from the grounds for reporting “fake news.”

Dean asked whether Oz agreed with the decision to keep those outlets off White House grounds. Oz said he regularly discusses the issue with reporters. He said they tell him the same thing: “He was mean to us, but you know what’s really, really bad for us? If he doesn’t talk to us.”

Oz said remarks from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders struck him as “perfect.” He said complaints were understandable because the president was deciding who could be present. He also said the journalists who are there are engaged fully and that Trump “fights those battles.”

Oz says Biden did not speak to the press for a year and a half

Oz said he had spoken with a reporter from another country. He said she told him that harsh treatment or difficult conditions did not hurt her work. What would hurt her work, he said she told him, is if the president refused to speak with the press.

“And in fairness, President Biden didn’t speak to the press for a year and a half, basically. So, all of the press had a ban for a year and a half,” Oz said. The debate over media access has extended beyond the White House, as the Pentagon reportedly barred reporters from entering its press office. 

Dean pointed out that Oz knows the media business well. She then asked if blocking outlets from the White House violates the First Amendment.

“No, he’s not banning media outlets!” Oz said. He said those organizations can still cover the president. He added that Trump “doesn’t want them around him.”

Oz said the approach matches how the president handles conflict. “He’s going to fight his battles, and people are going to address him,” he said. He also called the situation “a unique opportunity to watch how the press responds.”

“Let them defend themselves as they will, as you will, and let the president fight back, and let the best person win,” Oz said.

According to Mediaite, Oz first drew national attention after Oprah Winfrey featured him in 2004. He later hosted a daytime television program from 2009 to 2022, a show estimated to have paid him about $20 million a year.