White House INVITES the briefing crasher: Trump's favorite OAN reporter who was removed for refusing to socially distance is made press secretary's guest - despite journalists warning she put health at risk

  • An anchor for One America News tweets Thursday that her colleague Chanel Rion would return to press briefings as a guest of the press secretary 
  • Anchor Jennifer Franco said that Rion would attend the White House briefing as a guest of Stephanie Grisham, President Trump's top spokeswoman 
  • Franco later deleted the tweet and Grisham has yet to respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment 
  • Rion got OAN ousted from the briefing room rotation after showing up to back-to-back briefings on days she wasn't assigned a seat 
  • The White House Correspondents' Association board made the call saying it was for health reasons amid the coronavirus pandemic  

The One America News reporter who was expelled from press briefings for refusing to follow social distancing policies has been invited back by White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

'OANN White Hosue Correspondent Chanel Rion tells me she has been invited by Stephanie Grisham to attend today's coronavirus press briefing, despite being voted out of the rotation by the [White House Correspondents' Association] yesterday for violating social distancing guidelines,' tweeted Jennifer Franco, an anchor on the Trump-loving network. 

Franco has since deleted the tweet, while Grisham has yet to respond to a request for comment. Rion appeared in a segment with Franco on Thursday and said she planned to show up for the afternoon briefing, again as a guest of Grisham. 

'I spoke with Stephanie Grisham this morning,' Rion said. '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 if there's not physical complications with that.'   

Rion got bounced from the briefing room Wednesday after crashing two back-to-back pressers featuring President Trump and the coronavirus taskforce.     

The White House Correspondents' Association sent an email to its membership Wednesday evening saying the board had voted to remove a news network from rotating into a seat in the briefing room, which are limited due to the current social distancing guidelines in order to combat coronavirus

'We did this because a reporter for this outlet twice attended press briefings in contravention of this policy,' the WHCA board wrote. 'We do not take this action lightly. This is a matter of public safety.' 

WHCA President Jonathan Karl of ABC News reiterated that point in an email to DailyMail.com Thursday. 

'In order to comply with the social distancing guidelines, and to take steps to ensure the health and safety of the press corps and White House staff, there is no room for reporters who do not have an assigned seat today, or on any given day, to be standing in the briefing room,' Karl said. 

'If somebody is to be a guest of the White House, they should be sitting in the seats to the side which are set aside for White House staff,' he added. 

CREEPIN' IN THE BACK: One America News Network's Chanel Rion lost her network a briefing room seat after she crashed back-to-back White House briefings this week. Seating is limited and reporters are rotating in as they try to stay spaced apart from their colleagues

CREEPIN' IN THE BACK: One America News Network's Chanel Rion lost her network a briefing room seat after she crashed back-to-back White House briefings this week. Seating is limited and reporters are rotating in as they try to stay spaced apart from their colleagues 

One America News anchor Jennifer Franco tweeted Thursday that her colleague Chanel Rion would return to the briefing room on Thursday at the invitation of White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham

One America News anchor Jennifer Franco tweeted Thursday that her colleague Chanel Rion would return to the briefing room on Thursday at the invitation of White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham  

Rion can be seen Wednesday standing at the back of the briefing room and waving her hand after she was warned Tuesday by a representative of the White House Correspondents' Association that she needed to leave, as she didn't have a briefing room seat that day

Rion can be seen Wednesday standing at the back of the briefing room and waving her hand after she was warned Tuesday by a representative of the White House Correspondents' Association that she needed to leave, as she didn't have a briefing room seat that day 

Previously, Rion made waves when she asked President Trump if he thought Chinese food was 'racist.' She was trying to defend him from those who thought using the term 'Chinese virus' was racist

Previously, Rion made waves when she asked President Trump if he thought Chinese food was 'racist.' She was trying to defend him from those who thought using the term 'Chinese virus' was racist  

Just 14 reporters are to be utilizing the White House briefing room seats during President Trump's coronavirus briefings. The White House Correspondents' Association said the reason for OAN's ouster was that Rion wasn't abiding by those precautions by showing up

Just 14 reporters are to be utilizing the White House briefing room seats during President Trump's coronavirus briefings. The White House Correspondents' Association said the reason for OAN's ouster was that Rion wasn't abiding by those precautions by showing up 

The WHCA's membership includes journalists who pay dues and then elect a board, which makes decisions like the one regarding OAN. 

While a majority of seats in the briefing room are utilized by reporters, seats on the wall to the left of the podium are reserved for White House staff and guests.  

DailyMail.com confirmed on Wednesday that the reporter in question was Rion, who was seen standing at the back of the briefing room on Tuesday and Wednesday in order to get a question in to the president.  

Earlier Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times had reported that Rion had been asked by a representative of the WHCA on Tuesday to leave the room because she wasn't one of the 14 reporters who were allowed to take a seat that day. 

She refused and claimed she was there 'as a guest of Stephanie Grisham,' the White House press secretary, reporters familiar with the exchanage told the LA Times. 

Grisham never responded to an initial request for comment on Rion's removal and the reporter's statement that she was the press secretary's guest. 

Another tip-off that it was Rion who had gotten expelled for not practicing proper social distancing, was that she was standing while asking her questions, whereas most reporters sit through the duration of the briefing, even when they're called on by the president. 

Rion has quickly made a name for herself by asking questions that would please a conservative audience. 

Her first attention-getter started with her asking the president if Chinese food was 'racist.' She then accused members of the White House press corps of spouting off pro-communist Chinese talking points when questioning whether the president calling the coronavirus the 'Chinese virus' was racist. 

On Sunday, at a press briefing in the White House Rose Garden, where additional seats were made available to outlets, Rion compared the number of coronavirus fatalities to the 'children killed by their mothers through elective abortions every day.' 

Rion (left) teamed up with President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani (right) and took a reporting trip to Ukraine and Turkey late last year

Rion (left) teamed up with President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani (right) and took a reporting trip to Ukraine and Turkey late last year 

Members of the Trump family adorn Rion's Instagram including this picture in which she says she and Donald Trump Jr. (left) are 'Decimating the deep state one MAGA strategy session at a time'

Members of the Trump family adorn Rion's Instagram including this picture in which she says she and Donald Trump Jr. (left) are 'Decimating the deep state one MAGA strategy session at a time' 

Rion (left) also got access to President Trump's (center) Mar-a-Lago estate - when most reporters are kept outside in vans. Here she looks to be meeting first lady Melania Trump

Rion (left) also got access to President Trump's (center) Mar-a-Lago estate - when most reporters are kept outside in vans. Here she looks to be meeting first lady Melania Trump

In another Instagram post, she's posing with Ivanka Trump (right) who works as a top White House official

In another Instagram post, she's posing with Ivanka Trump (right) who works as a top White House official 

Rion also attracted controversy when she had Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani - a central figure in the Ukaine scandal that led to the president's impeachment - tag along with her on a reporting trip to Ukraine and Budapest, Turkey, late last year. 

'His hundreds of hours and months of research into what he calls the great political scandal of our time made him the only person to go with us on this trip,' Rion said of the ex-New York City mayor, according to Politico

She also teased that he findings would 'both astound and enrage' her viewership, as they've been kept hidden from the American people thanks to a 'complacent media.'  

On her personal website, she describes herself as an author and a 'political illustrator,' along with a White House correspondent. 

She's also been a conservative since childhood.  

She said she left the United States as a child because of the election of Democratic President Bill Clinton. 

'Clinton was the last straw, so dad picked up stakes and moved us out of the country,' she wrote in her bio. 'I think he wanted us to see what a debauched idea socialism was and that socialism was what the Clintons stood for. He wanted us to see what socialism did in the real world - how it destroyed people and human happiness in practice.'  

And her Instagram account features her mugging at Mar-a-Lago alongside President Trump - access normal White House reporters don't get. 

She's also seen with Donald Trump Jr. in a picture captioned, 'Decimating the deep state one MAGA strategy session at a time.' 

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