White House limits media access to West Wing offices, latest indignity for Trump’s press corps
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sent a memo Friday evening announcing a new restriction on press access to the West Wing. According to the memo, members of the White House press corps will now no longer be able to access the area known as the “high press” without an appointment.
This decision comes against a backdrop of profound changes in the Washington press under the Trump presidency. At the White House, the Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps by choosing right-wing partisan organizations to fill briefing room seats during daily news conferences and to join the group of reporters who accompany the president to events. These tasks have long been the responsibility of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Some journalists who are not part of this hand-picked partisan element have been insulted by senior White House officials.
These changes echo others at the Pentagon, where recent restrictions on the press have been even more dramatic. Journalists were asked to sign a pledge pledging not to collect information that has not been authorized for release. The move led several news outlets – including prominent conservative media outlets – to leave the premises. They were summarily replaced by a host of hand-picked media figures, including conspiracy theorists and extremists.
A White House correspondent who spoke to TPM on Friday said the new restrictions in the senior press were a sign of worse things to come in the West Wing.
“They’ve already kicked every legitimate news organization out of the Pentagon. Now they want to do the same thing here,” said the correspondent, who requested anonymity to offer a candid assessment.
Traditionally, White House press pass holders have been able to have relatively free access to several areas of the complex, including the press workspaces adjoining the briefing room, the briefing room itself and the North Lawn, where television networks film stand-up routines and reporters often question officials as they enter the building. Alongside these areas, journalists with passes can enter an area behind the briefing room podium, known as the “lower press” as well as the “upper press”, located one floor above. While the lower press contains the offices of relatively junior press officers, the upper press contains the offices of the press officer and communications director. Journalists monitor the higher press when seeking to speak to these more senior collaborators.
To gain access to the upper press, you must pass through a Secret Service checkpoint where your pass must be displayed. Often, after major news events, reporters come into the hallway outside the press secretary’s office to ask for comment. Other officials – including members of the Cabinet and, very rarely, the president – sometimes go through the upper press and speak with reporters there.
Cheung and Leavitt’s memo attributes the new restrictions to “recent structural changes to the National Security Council.”
“The White House is now responsible for directing all communications, including on all matters of national security,” the memo said. “As such, members of the White House communications staff regularly interact with sensitive documents. »
The memo said the new limits would “ensure compliance with best practices for access to sensitive material.” He also noted that reporters “will continue to engage freely with White House press secretaries in the lower press area, outside the briefing room.”
Cheung did not respond to an email from TPM asking whether there had ever been a specific national security disclosure issue related to the senior press. He also did not respond to questions about the series of insults, indignities and heightened partisanship in the White House press room.
