Trump May Kick Press Out of White House
January 15, 2017 in News by RBN Staff
The team behind President-elect Donald Trump is mulling over whether they should kick the press corps completely out of the White House.
They would be exiled to the White House Conference Center, near Lafayette Square, or in the Old Executive Office Building, next door to the White House, according to one plan.
The idea was first reported by Esquire magazine and The Hill.
“There has been no decision,” said Sean Spicer, Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, told Esquire. “There has been some discussion about how to do it.”
But Reince Priebus, Trump’s soon-to-be chief of staff, said Sunday that discussions about barring the press from the White House are “getting way out of whack.”
“Some of this, I think, is getting way out of whack,” Preibus told ABC’s “This Week.” “And I think people should be encouraged that there are so many people in the press that want to participate.
“So no one is moving out of the White House,” he said. “That is the White House, where you can fit four times the amount of people in the press conference, allowing more press, more coverage from all over the country to have those press conferences. That’s what we’re talking about.”
Spicer said the main problem is the sheer size of the press organizations that want to cover Trump.
“There’s been so much interest in covering a President Donald Trump,” Spicer said.
“A question is: Is a room that has 49 seats adequate? When we had that press conference the other day, we had thousands of requests, and we capped it at 400 Is there an opportunity to potentially allow more members of the media to be part of this? That’s something we’re discussing.”
Another senior official, though, called the press the “opposition party.”
“I want ’em out of the building,” the senior official told Esquire. “We are taking back the press room.”