Tensions between reporters and top Trump spokesman Sean Spicer reached a boiling point on Monday when the White House conducted its fifth consecutive audio-only press availability.
Not since last Monday has Spicer or deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders fielded questions from reporters in the context of a daily briefing while cameras were rolling. In one of his first interviews after landing the press secretary position, Spicer had said he would give the White House press corps an opportunity to ask questions in a formal setting every day, but some adjustments might be made to the format.
On-camera briefings were par for the course during the first month of Trump’s presidency, but Spicer has since traded them in for less formal interactions with reporters that remain on the record and are widely referred to as “gaggles.” In one instance that drew significant backlash from mainstream media organizations, Spicer invited a select few news outlets into his office for a chance to ask him questions.
Several reporters have publicly questioned the White House’s decision to scale back on-camera briefings.
“It’s not normal, [and] I wonder if it has anything to do with how concerned this president seems to be with the images of those who surround him,” one veteran White House correspondent told the Washington Examiner.
“Or maybe Spicer needed a break from watching [‘Saturday Night Live’] humiliate him for things he’s said or done on camera,” the reporter added.
But in the absence of “SNL” skits about Trump’s press secretary, reporters themselves have taken to mocking Spicer.
Spicer defends administration’s openness at the end of WH’s 5th consecutive off-camera press breifing
— Pema Levy (@pemalevy) March 6, 2017
here’s a supercut of all of Sean Spicer’s on-camera White House press briefings in the past week pic.twitter.com/tkp89HH7Di
— 217 days ago Trump promised 24-hr Hezbollah answer (@MattNegrin) March 6, 2017
PBS and the Associated Press ran live audio streams of Monday’s briefings online in a quasi-rebellious move that allowed those outside of the West Wing to listen to Spicer in real time even as he insisted on remaining off camera.
White House Correspondents Association president Jeff Mason told CNN earlier Monday that he urged Spicer to “hold an on-camera briefing today instead of the off-camera gaggle.”
Another White House reporter, Urban Radio Network’s April Ryan, used the briefing itself to complain to Spicer that “everything is closed [press]” in the White House as of late, meaning that spokespeople and President Trump have opted keep reporters out of events at least a small “pool” of them might cover.
“I made it very clear at the beginning of this, April, that we would have some things on camera, some things off,” Spicer shot back, noting that he or his deputy has briefed reporters “every day.”
He continued, “I mean, this president, when it comes to accessibility and allowing the press access, I think I’ve heard from several of you, we’ve gone above and beyond allowing the press into events, into sprays.
“So with all due respect, I mean, that’s not been the case,” Spicer told Ryan.
“Bring your cameras tomorrow,” Spicer said with a grin minutes later, before exiting the briefing room Monday afternoon.
