Of the many facets of the James Comey firing is how the White House communications office has handled the dissemination of information to the press. With conflicting stories of what, why and how the firing happened, the president tweeted Friday morning that, for the sake of accuracy, perhaps there shouldn’t be any more press briefings. (TVNewser)
Trump later told Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro that he may just hold bi-weekly news conferences instead. “I think it’s a good idea,” the president said of his idea. (TVNewser)
White House Correspondents’ Association president Jeff Mason offered a response: “Doing away with briefings would reduce accountability, transparency, and the opportunity for Americans to see that, in the U.S. system, no political figure is above being questioned. The White House Correspondents’ Association would object to any move that would threaten those constitutionally-protected principles.” (Fishbowl)
Trump is growing increasingly dissatisfied with the performance of his chief of staff, Reince Priebus; the communications director, Michael Dubke; and press secretary Sean Spicer, a Priebus ally, according to a half-dozen West Wing officials who said the president was considering the most far-reaching shake-up of his already tumultuous term. He has been especially critical of Spicer, they said, openly musing about replacing him and telling people in his circle that he kept his own press secretary out of the loop in dismissing Comey until the last possible moment because he feared that the communications staff would leak the news. (NYT)
At Friday’s press briefing, Spicer expanded on Trump’s suggestion at canceling further briefings, accusing the press corps of turning the daily event into a “game of gotcha.” Spicer went on to say that due to Trump’s robust schedule, they don’t always have the opportunity to meet with him and get his full thinking before addressing the press. (THR)