Leavitt blasts statement by WHCA leaders
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday the West Wing is "seriously considering" making changes to the White House press briefing room seating chart and blasted the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) for a statement pushing back on rumors it was seeking to take control of the room.
"We've made a lot of changes across the board that have benefited the American public to how this White House is covered," Leavitt said Monday afternoon during an appearance on Fox News. "We believe that it's fundamentally unfair that a group of D.C.-based elitists get to choose who gets to cover the president of the United States."
Leavitt had been asked about a report in Axios over the weekend suggesting the West Wing was considering taking control of the briefing room seating chart, a job typically reserved for the correspondents' association.
In a statement Monday, the WHCA board issued a blistering statement pushing back on those rumors.
“The White House should abandon this wrong-headed effort and show the American people they’re not afraid to explain their policies and field questions from an independent media free from government control,” it said.
The press secretary confirmed the Trump administration was "seriously considering" the changes and said the White House press office had been attempting to "broker" a meeting with WHCA leadership.
"But unfortunately their president sent out a fundamentally unserious email making it clear that this is a group that doesn't care about press freedom, transparency and access for all media voices but just cares about having their monetized monopoly over the briefing room," Leavitt said.
The back-and-forth comes just weeks after the White House banned The Associated Press from the press pool covering the president over its refusal to change its style guide on "Gulf of America."
The White House has separately invited a number of "new media" members in to the press briefing room during Trump's first three months in office, some of which come from outlets and internet platforms that are supportive of his agenda.
"The media has changed a lot in the decades of press coverage here at The White House," Leavitt said. "It's time that coverage changes with it."