President Trump blamed the media Tuesday as the reason the White House rarely holds press briefings.
Mr. Trump said he told press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders “not to bother” with conducting press briefings because he believes the press will be biased and covers her “rudely.”
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
Hogan Gidley, the deputy press secretary, addressed the lack of press briefings on Fox News earlier Tuesday morning.
“She’s [Sarah Sanders] going to come back when she finds a reason to,” he said on “America’s Newsroom.”
Mr. Gidley explained that the White House “can’t win” when it comes to unfair criticism about access because critics say there isn’t enough access to the president or to Mrs. Sanders.
Despite his tense relationship with the press, data recently released by the White House Correspondents Association showed Mr. Trump is the second most accessible president, right behind former President Bill Clinton.
@realDonaldTrump is second most accessible President to the press since Reagan, according to research by respected @mkumar38. Only Clinton faced questions more often. pic.twitter.com/Y0ZI0GKd7i
— WHCA (@whca) January 13, 2019
However, the WHCA President Olivier Knox criticized the lack of press briefings and said the Trump administration is setting a “terrible precedent.”
“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,” Mr. Knox said in a statement. “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.”
“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 the podium talking to the press and delivering the message to the American people,” Mr. Gidley said.
The last press briefing held by Mrs. Sanders was on Dec. 18, more than a month ago.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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