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NYT Reporter Got Thrown Out of Michigan Trump Rally After Posting Photo of Maskless Rally Goers
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Kathy Gray, a New York Times correspondent and former political reporter for the Detroit Free Press based in Michigan, was tapped to cover President Donald Trump's latest MAGA rally. This one was slated for an airstrip in Freeland, Michigan, an unincorporated township of around 5,000 people.

Gray arrived and—like most members of the modern press corps—began to tweet her observations.




While Gray's tweets look like simply reporting on what is happening around her, something in them was unacceptable to the Trump campaign.

13 minutes after her prior tweet, Gray was escorted from the venue by security.

How was she singled out?

Her tweets.

Gray's first tweet was at 6:57pm and by 7:18pm she had been ejected.

In a statement, vice president of communications for The New York Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha shed more light on the situation.

The Timessaid:

"We're disappointed that the Trump campaign refused to credential our freelancer and then, when she registered and attended as a member of the public, they ejected her from the event."
"Our goal is to cover these campaign events and talk to voters about the candidates, and that's what Kathy was trying to do."

This is not the first time the President and his campaign have targeted The New York Times.

Reactions to Gray's removal were polarized.










The Trump campaign has, as yet, not responded to requests for a statement regarding why Gray was not credentialed and ultimately ejected.

Gray told Bridge Michigan:

"I had done some interviews and was standing off to the side of the tarmac. They tracked me down from the photos I had taken and tweeted, came over and kicked me out."
"They said because I was using my work Twitter account and since I didn't have media credentials I couldn't be working there, and I had to leave."

She missed Monday's credential request deadline by a day, but subsequently reached out to the campaign multiple times to request access and got no response. A Trump campaign official reportedly saw her tweets and alerted security.