OANN reporter says White House invited her back to coronavirus briefings after removal from WHCA rotation

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One America News Network will not be barred from the White House coronavirus briefings after all.

A day after the White House Correspondents’ Association voted to remove OANN from White House briefings on the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, reporter Chanel Rion said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham personally invited her to stand in the back of the room on Thursday as she did the day before.

“The rule they said I violated was that I was violating social distancing guidelines by standing in the aisle or standing in that room when I was not allowed to,” Rion said during an appearance on OANN on Thursday. “I spoke with Stephanie Grisham this morning, I met with her, we discussed the situation, and she invited me again to attend the briefing today as her guest standing in the back, and I will be in the briefing room today.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The board for the White House Correspondents’ Association made the decision after Rion twice attended a press briefing outside of a rotation instituted to comply with federal social distancing guidelines. The reporter attended two press briefings that she was not cleared to cover from inside the press room due to space constraints and the rotation.

Rion has repeatedly been called upon by Trump, who has gone out of his way to promote the news organization, which has given him more positive coverage than most.

On March 19, Rion was harshly criticized by her peers after she asked Trump if he considered the term “Chinese food” to be racist during a line of questioning centering on the president’s use of the phrase “China virus” to describe the coronavirus.

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