White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of one of the most powerful clubs in America.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar Addresses Family Separations at Washington Post Health Event

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HHS Secretary speaks with Paige Winfield Cunningham at the Washington Post Health 202 Live event

The Trump administration policy forcing asylum seekers entering to US to split up with their children has sparked outrage around the world. As part of the Washington Post’s Health 202 Live event, health policy reporter Paige Winfield Cunningham spoke to HHS Secretary Alex Azar about his role in shaping the president’s policies, including immigration and child separation, as well as lowering insurance costs, and Medicare reform on Wednesday, June 20th.

On the controversial issue Azar said, “Nobody has ever desired to separate children from their families but, just like you or me, if you are arrested, your kids aren’t going to be with you. If you want to remain with your children, don’t come across the border illegally… Present yourself at a legal border crossing.”

Azar added, “Once members of Congress—the one who have actually visited facilities and toured it as opposed to those who are just talking about it—I think have been impressed. We take the mission quite seriously.”

Kellyanne Conway: Expect Staff Shake Up in Wake of Explosive White House Leaks

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Kellyanne Conway at the 2018 Garden Brunch

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway took to the airwaves to defend the Trump administration against a series of leaks coming out of the White House press shop. One of the leaks has sparked outrage from all sides when communications staffer Kelly Sadler claimed that Senator John McCain’s opposition to Gina Haspel becoming CIA Director “doesn’t matter” and that “he’s dying anyway.”

In an appearance on FOX News Monday morning, May 15th, Conway hinted that there may be personnel changes coming soon. “There are all kinds of leaks. Some leaks exist to hurt, I guess, colleagues, some leaks exist because they disagree with the policies that are being put forth, but none of them are helpful…Something else that’s gone on in this White House but not as badly as it was at the beginning, where it’s not so much leaking as using the media to shiv each other, and that was going on quite a bit at the beginning of this administration and it’s less so now.”

Meanwhile, President Trump took to Twitter to claim the leaks were “fake news”:

The White House has yet to issue an apology to Senator McCain for the staffer’s comments despite calls to do so from Congressmen and women on both sides of the aisle.

Trump Fails To Make State of the Union Ratings Great Again

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Media Post’s  

Donald Trump has been called the “ratings” President, because of his propensity to use the TV industry term to refer to his Presidential performance, and because he’s an ex-reality TV personality and producer. But based on Nielsen’s official ratings, the performance of his first State of the Union Address wasn’t exactly huge.

While it’s true that the ratings of Presidential State of the Union addresses have been trending downward in recent years, Trump’s first SOTU ranks only eighth in terms of viewers among the last 25 to be aired on the major broadcast and cable networks carrying it live, according to an analysis of Nielsen data.

Michael Wolff Celebrates Fire and Fury Success At Publisher’s Upper West Side Home

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Publisher Stephen Rubin toasts Michael Wolff at his Upper West Side Home, Photo Courtesy Haddad Media

 

From the moment its first excerpts leaked to the press, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House was destined to be a bestseller. To top it off, on the same day that it was revealed the book will be turned into a TV series, The New York Times’ Shawn McCreesh writes in an article on Thursday, January 18th that Michael Wolff held a party in celebration of the book’s success at the Upper West Side home of publisher Stephen Rubin.

According to McCreesh, conservative firebrand Ann Coulter was in attendance, as was NPR’s David Folkenflik, CNN’s Dylan Byers, former Hollywood Reporter editor Janice Min, and Jane Friedman, the former CEO of HarperCollins.

Haddad Media CEO Tammy Haddad also made the bash, saying, “I’ve joined every other reporter in being incredibly jealous of Michael’s access.”

Read the full report from the party here.

Purchase Fire and Fury here.

Kremlin Considers Trump’s Tweets as Official White House Statements

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Photo courtesy Pixabay

The Kremlin has acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin reads tweets posted by President Donald Trump, and the Russian government considers them to be official positions of the administration.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed his government’s stance in a statement.

“In any case, everything which is published from [Trump’s] authorized Twitter account is perceived by Moscow as his official statement… Naturally, it is reported to Putin along with other information about official statements by politicians.”

Trump regularly posts on Twitter to make official policy announcements and also to appeal to his base of supporters and vent frustrations at those with whom he disagrees, including the media and lawmakers.

The president has frequently been criticized about his tweets, including criticizing U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May after a sharp rebuke following his retweeting videos originally posted by ultra-nationalists in the United Kingdom suggesting violence against Muslims.

Trump also recently lashed out at Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in a tweet saying she “would do anything for [campaign contributions]” after the Senator called for his resignation following “credible” and “numerous” allegations of sexual harassment against Trump.

Journalists Express Mixed Feelings On Attending White House Christmas Party

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Photo courtesy the White House

Following CNN’s announcement they will not attend the annual White House Christmas party for the media, other reporters have expressed mixed responses and reservations over socializing with an administration that often lambastes mainstream journalists as “fake news.”

For example, New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi wrote in an email to Politico that:

“While I don’t think it’s improper to attend social events with the president per se, I personally am uncomfortable with the idea of being a guest in this White House for a party (if I would not be covering the party), given Donald Trump’s stated threats to the First Amendment and general lack of understanding or interest in its importance. For that reason, my personal feelings are that it sends the wrong message to schmooze under mistletoe while our freedoms are under attack. That said, I don’t judge colleagues who arrive at a different conclusion.”

Another White House correspondent, who wished to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak on the record about this topic, said that he would attend the holiday event.

“I do get bothered [by the attacks on the press].  But I don’t view it as our role to engage in a fight with the president. I think that it’s our role to keep doing our jobs reporting the news and not treat it like we’re two warring institutions of American democracy. We don’t need to reciprocate that attitude.”

CNN announced earlier this week it would not be accepting the White House invitation, although they would send a reporting team to the event and report on any relevant news that may come out of the party.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded by posting on Twitter that “Christmas comes early!” because of CNN’s decision.


The White House Christmas party is held annually, and is normally a casual event where reporters mingle off-the-record with administration officials and staff.

Twitter Employee Disabled Trump’s Account on Last Day

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Twitter announced late Thursday that an employee deactivated the account of President Donald Trump for 11 minutes on his last day on the job.

After an investigation, Twitter said that “[t]hrough our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day.  We are conducting a full internal review.”

Trump himself seemed to brush off the incident, suggesting the employee’s actions showed the impact the president was having through social media.

The president’s Twitter account is highly watched, with 41.7 million followers viewing more than 36,000 tweets reportedly sent from Trump himself, often directing the news cycle of the day and raising controversy.

White House Reporters: “Thank God We Have His Tweets”

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Photo courtesy Pixabay.

Four notable journalists talked about the positives and negatives of covering the current White House during a wide-ranging panel discussion at SVA Theater during the annual New Yorker Festival.

Titled “All the President’s Reporters,” New York Times’ Jo Becker, CNN’s Carl Bernstein, The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer and Washington Post’s Greg Miller talked about the unique aspects covering Donald Trump’s presidency.

His habit of engaging in tweet-storms several times a week was noted as an important pathway to understand the president’s thoughts on issues of the day.

“Thank God we have his tweets,” said Carl Bernstein.  “It’s like a road map to the mind of Donald Trump.”

Greg Miller agreed, calling the president’s tweets “footage” recording the turbulent first period of the administration.

Jo Becker brought up the divisions across different media organizations, with the landscape starkly different from outlet to outlet that things can play out as dramatically and surprisingly as the 2016 campaign coverage showed.  She pointed out much of today’s discourse happens within media outlets, in stark difference to Bernstein’s coverage of Watergate, where CBS News’ Walter Cronkite would laud the reporting of the Washington Post in its coverage, putting the issue on the national agenda.

“It would be [MSNBC’s] Rachel Maddow preaching to the converted, and then Fox News would go after you and Bob [Woodward],” Becker made the point to Bernstein.

Jane Mayer emphasized her belief that regardless of stonewalling and “fake news,” the truth always comes out eventually.

“The truth comes out.  It sometimes takes a while, but it comes out.  There’s a strong public-service streak that people in public office have when they see power being abused.”

Following the panel discussion, questions turned to the division between media outlets and the hyper-partisan viewpoint of readers.  “I have my friends from school and I have my friends from Washington,” Miller said while describing growing up in a remote California town of 500 residents.  “My school friends all think I’m fake news.  They didn’t think I was fake in 5th grade but now I do.”

Bernstein wrapped up the panel noting that individuals no longer tune into national news broadcasts nightly, but rely on outlets portraying a specific political viewpoint with which they agree.  “We’re losing a large part of the country [which ignores mainstream media].  And I don’t think they’re coming back.”

California Governor Vetoes Bill Requiring Presidential Candidates to Release Tax Reforms

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Photo courtesy Neon Tommy / Annenberg Digital News.

Late Sunday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed pending legislation requiring presidential candidates appearing on California’s ballot releasing their federal tax returns to the public.

Although the bill passed the Democratic-controlled legislature, Brown warned the measure could eventually lead to requirements of candidates to release other private information, such as health records or birth certificates.

“While I recognize the political attractiveness — even the merits — of getting President Trump’s tax returns, I worry about the political perils of individual states seeking to regulate the presidential elections in this manner.  Will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power?” the governor wrote in his veto message.

Sunday was the deadline for Brown to sign or veto this measure from the 2017 legislative session.  The measure’s prime sponsor, state Sen. Mike McGuire (D) did not comment on the veto message.

Bob Schieffer: Trump’s Attacks On Media Undermine “Foundations” of Democracy

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Photo courtesy Haddad Media

Legendary CBS News journalist Bob Schieffer appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday, suggesting that President Trump’s attacks on the media and journalists are “undermining the foundations of our democracy.”

While Schieffer said he doesn’t give much credibility to Trump’s frequent criticisms about the media on Twitter, he did say that:

“What I do take seriously is when he tries to destroy the credibility of the media.  An independent press that can gather information that people can compare to the government’s versions of events – that is what we do.”

Prompted by host Brian Stelter on the president’s remarks, Schieffer explained that:

“It is as crucial to our democracy as the right to vote.  And when people try to undermine that, I think they are undermining the foundations of our democracy.”

During the past week, President Trump suggested on Twitter the FCC should review the broadcast licenses of “distorted and fake” networks, especially NBC.  He also said to reporters during an Oval Office meeting with the Canadian prime minister that it is “disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write.”