Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, addressed media questions about press pool access and contrasted President Donald Trump’s media accessibility with former President Joe Biden’s approach during a discussion hosted by Axios co-founder Mike Allen.
Leavitt highlighted statistics showing President Trump’s availability to the press compared to Biden’s limited public engagement during his four years in office. She noted that the media had largely overlooked Biden’s avoidance of media interactions and his minimal public presence.
What Happened
At the media event, Allen asked Leavitt about concerns regarding restrictions on press access, citing the iconic photograph taken by Evan Vucci, chief photographer for the Associated Press, of President Trump after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. “You have tailed access to the ‘Associated Press,’ which reaches half the world’s population every day. The most definitive photo of President Trump, the fight, fight, fight photo after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, was made by Evan Vucci, who’s the chief photographer in Washington for the ‘Associated Press.’ Do you worry about history being lost with these new restrictions?” Allen asked.
Leavitt reframed the changes as expansions rather than restrictions. “I don’t view them as restrictions. We view them as opening access to more outlets, more voices, more news, journalists and outlets,” she said. She explained that the administration had broadened access beyond a limited pool, arguing that thousands of outlets hold White House press credentials and hundreds cover the beat daily.
“Why should a single outlet have the privilege of being in that 13 person press pool every single day. And so the changes we’ve made have actually created more transparency, more accessibility, and greater access for a broad variety of outlets and a diversity of journalists, which I think is a good thing,” Leavitt added. She emphasized that journalists continue to receive coverage of the administration’s activities without restriction.
The Reaction
Allen pressed further, referencing a statement from the White House Correspondents Association asserting that government should not control independent media coverage. “The counter to that is in a White House Correspondents Association’s statement about the White House changes to the position of wire services in the pool. And the statement says the government should not be able to control the independent media that covers it. Do you agree with that statement?” he asked.
Leavitt responded by questioning the authority of a small group of journalists to determine access. “Well, I think that a small group of journalists who comprise the board of the White House Correspondents Association should not dictate who gets to go into the Oval Office and who gets to ride on Air Force One. There should be equal access for all outlets,” she said.
She further stated that the administration had not restricted any outlets from coverage. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing. And if we were trying, by the way, to create positive press for the president, if we were trying to make it easier on him or on the administration, we wouldn’t allow some of these fake news leftist outlets in. But we continue to do that. No one has been restricted,” Leavitt said.
What This Means
Leavitt concluded by framing the changes as a recognition of the digital age and the president’s nontraditional media approach. “It’s not about ideology. It’s just about increasing the wide variety of outlets that have access. And we live in a digital age, and we’re recognizing that at the White House. The president ran a nontraditional media campaign, which propelled him back to the highest office in the land. And we felt it was our responsibility to continue that in our coverage at the White House,” she said.
In July, Axios published reporting titled “Biden’s media evasion,” documenting that Biden had held fewer press conferences and media interviews than any of the last seven presidents at the same point in their term. Biden had conducted only 164 such interactions, compared to Trump’s 468 at the same point. George W. Bush had 248 and Ronald Reagan had 262.
