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White House Correspondents Association ousts OANN after staffer violates social distancing rules

By Matt Collins Article may include affiliate links

The White House Correspondents Association voted April 1, 2020, remove the conservative One America Network from the daily coronavirus briefing rotation after one of the network’s staffers broke social distancing guidelines.

Because of social distancing guidelines, the number of usable seats in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room has been significantly reduced to just 14.

The WHCA has established a rotation schedule for the limited seats — and attendees are no longer allowed to stand along the walls or other locations in the room as before.

While the WHCA announcement did not name the network it removed from the rotation specifically, but multiple sources have identified OAN’s Chanel Rion as the impetus of the ouster.

The WHCA reportedly received complaints from other outlets about Rion standing in the aisles to ask questions when she was not assigned a seat for that day.

Rion was reportedly asked to leave but insisted she was a “guest” of Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.

In previous briefings, Donald Trump has called on Rion, who asked mostly softball questions that also suggested conspiracies by other media outlets.

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