(Image source from: Star Tribune)

The White House on Thursday defended its move to bar a correspondent of American media company CNN (Cabel News Network) from attending an open press event yet contended it had nothing to do with the questions she asked.

Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Thursday that Kaitlan Collins was denied access to Trump's Rose Garden event with the European Commission president on Wednesday because of her refusal to leave the Oval Office during a previous availability with the president. She and her employer, CNN, said she was barred because White House officials found her questions "inappropriate," which Gidley disputed.

During an earlier "pool spray" availability in the Oval Office, Collins had served as a representative of the television networks. She, including a handful of reporters of other reporters, peppered questions toward President, including many focused on his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. CNN, a day earlier had acquired and aired a concealed tape that captured Trump and Cohen talk about a possible payment to a former Playboy model who claims she had an affair with Trump.

Gidley said, "It had nothing to do with the content of the question." He was talking to reporters aboard Air Force One as President Donald Trump headed back to Washington from Iowa and Illinois.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday said the White House had made clear that other CNN journalists were welcome at the Rose Garden event, just not Collins. "To be clear, we support a free press and ask that everyone be respectful of the presidency and guests at the White House," she said.

The White House Correspondents Association also issued a harshly worded statement condemning "the White House's misguided and inappropriate decision ... to bar one of our members from an open press event after she asked questions they did not like."

By Sowmya Sangam