White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt highlighted what she described as a stark contrast between President Donald Trump’s accessibility to the media and former President Joe Biden’s limited public visibility during his four years in office. Speaking at a media event hosted by Axios co-founder Mike Allen, Leavitt defended recent changes to the White House press pool, arguing that the changes have expanded access rather than restricted it. She also criticized what she characterized as the media’s failure to sufficiently scrutinize Biden’s limited engagement with the press while he was president.The discussion began when Allen questioned Leavitt about concerns that new restrictions on wire services could limit historical documentation of the Trump presidency.“You have curtailed access to the Associated Press, which reaches half the world’s population every day,” Allen said. He pointed to the iconic photograph of Trump raising his fist after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, taken by Associated Press chief Washington photographer Evan Vucci.
Allen then asked whether Leavitt was concerned that such restrictions could cause important moments in history to be missed. Leavitt rejected the characterization of the changes as restrictions. “I don’t view them as restrictions,” she said, arguing that the administration was instead opening access to “more outlets, more voices, more news, journalists and outlets.” Leavitt said the White House should not allow a small number of organizations to maintain what she described as a monopoly over the briefing room or the 13-member press pool that travels with the president. “There are thousands of outlets who have White House press credentials. There are hundreds that actually show up every day and cover the beat,” Leavitt said. She questioned why a single outlet should have the privilege of occupying a spot in the presidential press pool every day.
According to Leavitt, the administration’s changes have resulted in greater transparency and broader representation among journalists and news organizations.“We’ve actually ensured that more print outlets like Axios have a greater chance of being part of that 13-person press pool,” she said. Leavitt also argued that the public continues to receive extensive coverage of the administration because journalists remain present at the White House and continue reporting on the president’s activities. “I think you’re all still getting your news, right?” she said. “You’re still hearing about what the administration is doing every single day, because we have good journalists who are in that room covering the president every single time.” Allen then raised an opposing argument from the White House Correspondents’ Association, which had criticized changes to the role of wire services in the presidential press pool. The association argued that the government should not control which independent media organizations are allowed to cover it.
Leavitt pushed back, saying that the board of the White House Correspondents’ Association should not have the authority to determine which organizations receive access to the Oval Office or Air Force One. “A small group of journalists who comprise the board of the White House Correspondents Association should not dictate who gets to go into the Oval Office and who gets to ride on Air Force One,” she said. “There should be equal access for all outlets.” Leavitt further argued that the administration’s policy was not designed to favor supportive media organizations. She noted that outlets critical of Trump continue to receive access.
“If we were trying, by the way, to create positive press for the president, if we were trying to make it easier on him or on the administration, we wouldn’t allow some of these fake news leftist outlets in,” she said. “But we continue to do that. No one has been restricted. We’ve just given more spots to more outlets and more voices.” Leavitt concluded that the changes were intended to reflect the changing media landscape rather than promote a particular political ideology. “It’s not about ideology,” she said. “It’s just about increasing the wide variety of outlets that have access.” She added that the Trump campaign had relied heavily on nontraditional media and that the White House intended to carry that approach into its presidential coverage.
“The president ran a nontraditional media campaign, which propelled him back to the highest office in the land,” Leavitt said. “And we felt it was our responsibility to continue that in our coverage at the White House.”
