Two close allies of President-elect Trump are publicly suggesting that he, once sworn in, should entirely brush off the national media.
Trump has not given a formal press conference since July and the media have noticed. But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, both regularly in touch with Trump, say it doesn’t matter.
“The news media so totally disgraced itself in this election, if I were Trump I would just say no,” Gingrich said in a USA Today interview Tuesday. “And if the White House Correspondents Association doesn’t like it, I’d say, ‘Fine, disband.'”
That same day, in a radio interview with Breitbart News, Hannity said the same thing.
“They’re done. I suggested the other day that if any of these organizations were involved in collusion with the Clinton campaign, why do they get a seat in the White House press office?” he said. “Why does Donald Trump need a White House press office? He doesn’t. You know, you can have a pool person that’s standing by if, God forbid, there’s any bad news about the president that the country needs to know, but his own staff could tweet it out, for crying out loud.”
Traditionally, the White House gives a daily press briefing to the White House press corps.
The White House Correspondents’ Association, a pro-transparency and access group of journalists, is responsible for assigning briefing room seating to news organizations.
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who served under President George W. Bush, however, noted recently that things could change under the incoming Trump administration.
“The White House press secretary used to decide who got what seats, but this authority was given to the White House Correspondents’ Association in the middle of the George W. Bush administration,” he wrote. “Nothing prohibits the incoming administration from taking it back. The valuable West Wing real estate occupied by the White House press corps isn’t the property of the press. It belongs to the U.S. government.”
