Trump campaign bans Bloomberg journalists from events

US President Donald Trump's campaign announced that it would ban Bloomberg journalists from its campaigns and rallies after the news agency refused to investigate its owner, Michael Bloomberg, a Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential election.

"Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events," campaign manager for 2020 elections, Brad Parscale, said in a statement on Monday.

"We will determine whether to engage with individual reporters or answer inquiries from Bloomberg News on a case-by-case basis," he added.

In a statement, Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said "the accusation of bias couldn't be further from the truth", Efe news reported.

On November 24, the news agency had said in a memo to its employees, accessed by The Washington Post, that it would not investigate the former mayor of New York City nor his democratic opponents.

"We will continue our tradition of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation) and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries. We cannot treat Mike's democratic competitors differently from him," the memo said, adding that the agency would investigate the Trump administration.

The same day, Michael Bloomberg officially announced his entry in the 2020 Democratic presidential race with the aim to "defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America".

"I'm running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America. We cannot afford four more years of President Trump's reckless and unethical actions," he said in a statement published on his campaign website.

( With inputs from IANS )