Trump Told Sarah Sanders To Stop White House Media Briefings
President Donald Trump revealed Tuesday that the behavior of the White House media corps is the reason he told press secretary Sarah Sanders to stop holding regular media briefings.
“The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the ‘podium’ much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!” Trump tweeted.
The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the “podium” much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019
Sanders held her last briefing on Dec. 18. She held two in October and one in November, The Hill reported.
The media has insisted briefings are vital.
“This retreat from transparency and accountability sets a terrible precedent,” White House Correspondents’ Association President Olivier Knox said in a statement.
“Being able to question the press secretary or other senior government officials publicly helps the news media tell Americans what their most powerful representatives are doing in their name. While other avenues exist to obtain information, the robust, public back-and-forth we’ve come to expect in the James A. Brady briefing room helps highlight that no one in a healthy republic is above being questioned,” he continued.
However, deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said the Trump administration provides ample communications to the American people, and media briefings are just one part of that.
“It’s not that they’ve ever stopped, it’s just that sometimes we need to come to the podium to communicate things and sometimes we don’t,” Gidley told Fox News. “A lot of the times when we don’t come to the podium it’s because the president has addressed the American people himself.”
Sanders will return to give briefings “when she finds a reason to do that.”
“It’s kind of ridiculous, you can’t win for losing half the time. But the fact is, when the president isn’t going up we have a conversation about the message we deliver, and Sarah Sanders will absolutely be back at this podium talking to the press and delivering the message to the American people,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the media’s reporting of his administration as “fake news.”
“Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage!” Trump tweeted Saturday.
Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Baer said the inaccurate BuzzFeed report on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and the media’s disastrous coverage of Covington Catholic high school students have helped Trump in his battle with the media.
“Feels as if President Donald Trump just got a political post-halftime push. Midway into a (first?) term marked by battles with media, the president’s favorite enemy has handed him — and all who clamor about ‘fake news’ — some added motivation. And, more broadly, created yet another test of media credibility,” he wrote.
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