As evidenced yesterday, something else that’s likely to change when Pres.-elect Trump takes office, how his press availabilities play out.
For the last few administrations, presidents would have a list of reporter names and their outlets usually prepared by someone in the press office. Typically, the Associated Press gets the first question, then on to the TV networks, and other print and digital outlets.
But at his news conference Wednesday, Trump called on reporters, jumping all over the room, first pointing to John Roberts from Fox News, then motioning to Jon Karl of ABC, then pointing to another, and another. It was like this: make eye contact, wait for the point, ask question. (Hope he was pointing at you.)
“When I look at video tape, that’s what JFK did,” said Ed Henry this morning on Fox News. “[Trump] has ripped up the rules. The reporters go ‘we want it done a certain way.’ I think the public goes ‘we’re not in charge.’ We have a seat at the table but he’s the president of the United States,” Henry said, adding, “it doesn’t mean he can’t do whatever he wants and there should be rules of the decorum, and sometimes he goes a little far saying ‘you’re fake news.’ You have to calm some of that down. But at the end of the day, we don’t have it written down that we have to have it a certain way. It’s not about us.”