Media access to the incoming Trump administration continues to take shape.
During the Sunday shows and continuing into this morning, administration officials all but admitted the James S. Brady press briefing room, which has 49 seats for journalists, won’t be utilized as it had before for daily press briefings. At least not in the early days.
“The White House is 18 acres,” said incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus to Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. “The only thing that was discussed about this, is whether or not you take 50 people in the very small press room, and whether you want to go 50 feet to the EOB (Executive Office Building) and have for the first few weeks or the first months or so the press conferences where you can fit three or four times the amount of people. It is about more access. This is about quadrupling the amount of reporters that can cover our press conference.”
$8.5 million was spent to renovate the press briefing room during George W. Bush’s administration with tax payers funding most of the cost. The new James S. Brady press briefing room reopened in July, 2007.
On CBS This Morning incoming press secretary Sean Spicer said journalists who’ve long worked adjacent to the briefing room will keep their cubicles there.
“Will the press still be allowed to have offices in the West Wing?” — @NorahODonnell
“Yeah.” — @seanspicer pic.twitter.com/x5T8kdwwSH
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) January 16, 2017
