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McCain campaign threatened to cut off Newsweek’s access.

Earlier this week, after Newsweek published a cover story examining the hardball tactics conservatives might use in the general election, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) “true partner” and longest-serving aide, Mark Salter, fired off a stinging retort that accused the magazine of being “biased.” Today, a Wall Street Journal profile of Salter reveals that he also “threatened to throw the magazine’s reporters off the campaign bus and airplane”:

He threatened to throw the magazine’s reporters off the campaign bus and airplane, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Salter says he expressed the campaign’s displeasure and is talking to the publication about future access.

Salter’s move to cut off Newsweek’s access is reminiscent of how in 2004, “a New York Times reporter assigned to cover Vice President Cheney was routinely excluded from the press plane.”

Update:

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During his 2000 run for president, Arizona Republic reporter Kristin Mayes “was removed from McCain’s Straight Talk Express campaign bus.”