The Trump campaign on Friday said it would resume credentialing reporters for Bloomberg News after the company’s owner, Michael Bloomberg, dropped out of the Democratic presidential race and the news outlet said it would return to normal coverage.
“Bloomberg News says it’s returning to equal treatment of all candidates — D & R — now that Mike Bloomberg is out of the race,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh tweeted.
“They say they WILL report on his political spending. We’ll see,” he continued. “But for now the Trump campaign will again credential their reporters for events.”
The news outlet had said after Bloomberg entered the race in November that it would refrain from in-depth investigations of its owner and his Democratic rivals. The Trump campaign responded by saying it would no longer credential Bloomberg News reporters for official events, accusing the outlet of bias.
Bloomberg reporters were still able to attend Trump rallies as part of the White House pool, though the ban applied to the outlet’s campaign reporters seeking credentials.
In light of the former New York City mayor ending his presidential bid on Monday, the news outlet’s editor-in-chief said it would return to its typical election coverage.
“We will follow exactly the same coverage rules for the Democratic presidential candidates and President Donald Trump,” editor-in-chief John Micklethwait told Bloomberg editorial and research staff in a memo shared with The Hill.
The Trump campaign in 2016 prevented reporters from various outlets from covering events as members of the press, including The Washington Post, Politico and BuzzFeed.