Trump has decided to pick and chose what news outlets are allowed to be close enough to question him in the Oval Office and Air Force One. In response, Eugene Daniels, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said they would no longer distribute pool reports from the White House’s chosen correspondents. The W.H.C.A., created in 1914, is an independent group whose members are accredited to cover the president.
“This board will not assist any attempt by this administration or any other in taking over independent press coverage of the White House. This move from the White House threatens the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president.”
Started under President Eisenhower, the composition of the pool has changed over time, and now includes “three wire service reporters; two print or online reporters; a radio reporter; four photographers; and a television crew, including a producer, an audio technician and a camera operator.”
Karoline Leavitt, the WH press secretary said,
“Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team. Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join, fear not. But we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.”
On paper this sounds reasonable, but what will happen is Trump will not call on the “legacy outlets” (who may ask difficult questions) and allow the easy questions from far-right and sympathetic news organizations, i.e those who will spread his lies, far and wide. The A.P. has been barred from the Oval Office and Air Force One for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Reuters has been kicked off as well, and the conservative outlet Newsmax has been allowed to remain.
Here is a good explanation of what’s going on, although I don’t think Pamela Brown is alarmed enough.
In a report from the Guardian, Republicans say they fear crossing Trump not only because of the threat to their careers, but also the threat to theirs and their family’s saftey. Rep Eric Swalwell of California said, “It’s more more personal. It’s their personal safety that they’re afraid of, and they have spouses and family members saying, ‘Do not do this, it’s not worth it, it will change our lives forever. We will have to hire around-the-clock security.’” Bradly Moss, a lawyer who represents the FBI Agents Association, agrees with this idea of Trump-inspired intimidaton and has filed a lawsuit against the president to stop him from naming names and showing photos of agents.
“He knows full well the intimidation factor he can bring through his bully pulpit.”
Liz Cheney told CNN as far back as 2021 that some of her Republican colleagues did not vote to impeach Trump because of fear of this kind.
Elon Musk, not an official cabinet member, attended Trump’s first full cabinet meeting yesterday. I watched a few minutes and found the glad-handing, back scratching behavior to be unbearable. Trump forced his cabinet to praise Musk (who did not have an actual seat at the table), as Musk jokingly referred to himself as “humble tech support” – people laughed dutifully – and claimed that his haphazard efforts to take a chainsaw to the federal government can save a trillion dollars and dig the country out of debt. “It’s not an optional thing, it’s an essential thing,” he said. “If we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt.” He went on, “President Trump has put together I think the best cabinet ever, literally, and I do not give false praise. This is an incredible group of people. I don’t think such a talented team has ever been assembled. I think it’s literally the best cabinet the country’s ever had … ” Then came a telling slip from the world’s richest man: “I think the company [sic] should be incredibly appreciative of the people in this room.”
It was reported that the main person in control in the room was Musk. Vance was not invited to speak until an hour into the meeting, and he only spoke for a minute.
There were few people of color or women at the table.
The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court late last night, the first time they have gone to the highest court since this new term. At issue is billions of dollars in foreign aid from the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development that Trump froze in January. US District Judge Amir Ali imposed a temporary order requiring that money to flow while he considered the case. Justice Roberts is pausing that order for now.
Here is a video grab of the drawing at the top of the page.
The independent press keeps our democracy strong, so let’s find a way around the scripted nonsense Trump will put forth. Right wing media is a massive operation that independent media will have to work hard to counter. But I believe it can and will be done.
Thanks for being here, see you tomorrow!
Perfect Example of the Press today, Liza, Nailed It 💯👍
this makes me feel ill. is there no end to this arrogance? America is under fire- from our own Oval Office.