What a difference a few hours makes. This morning it looked like the White House was ready to battle it out to revoke Jim Acosta’s press pass once again, but now there is news of a reversal. After CNN asked the U.S. District Court for an emergency hearing to protect Acosta’s pass,  the White House announced it was backing down from its threats and reinstating Acosta’s pass. CNN writes:

“Having received a formal reply from your counsel to our letter of November 16, we have made a final determination in this process: your hard pass is restored,” the White House said in a new letter to Acosta. “Should you refuse to follow these rules in the future, we will take action in accordance with the rules set forth above. The President is aware of this decision and concurs.”

“The change here, this backing down as of 3:00 p.m., is that the White House is saying in this letter, that the pass will be restored voluntarily by the administration.

Now, there is, of course, a caveat. And I think that the White House wants to straighten this along and makes this a threat that looms over the entire White House press corps. The letter to Acosta says, new rules in the future, we will take action in accordance with the rules set forth above. So the new rule is one question per reporter at a press conference. You get to ask one question, and quote, by the discretion of the president or White House officials taking questions, a follow-up may be permitted. So what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to establish some kind of ground rules within a press conference setting, so that nobody can act out of order. Now, obviously… we all remember the days of Sam Donaldson and Dan Rather press conferences with follow-up questions that have been going on for as long as there’s been press conferences. But I think that the Trump administration here is trying to control the situation, control the narrative, and limit the number of questions that get asked at these events.”