April Ryan suggested late Wednesday that the White House treats her worse than other correspondents because she’s a black woman.
“I would say if you can taste it, smell it, touch it, it is what it is,” Ryan told Trevor Noah on “The Daily Show,” when asked if she thought the White House press office under President Trump treated her more aggressively because she is a black woman. “It’s the truth.”
“I’m warred upon,” Ryan said, accusing the White House of trying to “discredit me. Trying to kill my career. Trying to make me look as if I’m someone I am not.”
“I am a journalist. I am not an activist journalist,” Ryan, the American Urban Radio Networks White House correspondent and CNN commentator, said.
{mosads}Ryan has been a frequent critic of the administration, clashing with White House officials.
She previously asked Trump if he was racist after The Washington Post reported that Trump had referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some nations in Africa as “shithole countries.”
The president did not respond to the question, instead defending his comments later on Twitter, writing, “Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country.”
Ryan has said that question gained a spot on what she alleges is “The White House blacklist.”
Ryan has also said that she has received death threats from members of the public, after asking White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if Trump had considered resigning.
Ryan and others blame the White House’s rhetoric surrounding journalists for hostility toward the press. The president has repeatedly ripped negative coverage as “Fake News,” which he says makes up much of the mainstream media.