Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday the Trump Administration’s media team will now determine which outlets are part of the White House press pool — a decision that rips control away from the White House Correspondents’ Association, which has historically determined the reporters who travel with and cover the president.
“For decades, a group of D.C.-based journalists — the White House Correspondents Association — has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States in these most intimate spaces. Not anymore,” Leavitt said during a press briefing. “I am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows and who listen to your radio stations. Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team.”
The WHCA, currently led by Politico’s Eugene Daniels, has been making the seating decisions inside the White House press briefing room since 1981. It also determines the daily reporters who are assigned to covering the president.
Leavitt said legacy media outlets should “fear not,” because they will still be invited to participate in the pool. But the Trump Administration, like it has done recently with its “new media” seat, will be offering the “privilege” of covering the White House to “new voices” as well, Leavitt said.
Moving forward, the White House press team will continue its rotation of the five major television networks, as well as include streaming services “which reach different audiences,” print media outlets and radio hosts, Leavitt outlined.
“And we will add additional outlets and reporters who are well suited to cover the news of the day and ask substantive questions of the President of the United States,” she added.
In response, the WHCA said the move “tears at the independence of a free press” in the U.S.
“It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps,” the WHCA said in a statement shared by Daniels.
The WHCA added that the Trump press team did not give it a “heads up” or “have any discussions” with its board prior to making the decision.
The big change comes a day after a federal judge sided against the Associated Press, which had filed an emergency injunction to have its access to the Oval Office restored. The AP has been indefinitely banned from the Oval Office and other spaces close to the president because it is continuing to use the term “Gulf of Mexico,” rather than “Gulf of America,” following President Trump’s executive order last month changing the gulf’s name on government contracts.
The AP has argued the ban violates its First and Fifth Amendment rights, while the Trump press team has said it gets to determine which outlets are granted access to the president.
“Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president of the United States questions,” Leavitt said on Feb. 12. “That is an invitation that is given.”
A hearing has been set for March 20 for further arguments from both the AP and the Trump Administration on the ban.
