White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

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.

Reince Priebus Joins Washington Speakers Bureau, Michael Best and Friedrich Law

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Chairman Reince Priebus speaking at the RNC at the DNC opening press conference. Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Reince Priebus, former White House chief of staff and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, announced that he will both rejoin the Washington D.C. office of the Milwaukee-based law firm Michael Best & Friedrich, LLC and be represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau.

Priebus will serve as president and chief strategist at Michael Best, where he worked more than a dozen years before his election as head of the RNC.  He will also serve as chairman of the advisory board for Michael Best Strategies LLC, the firm’s government relations and public affairs group.

“We are pleased to announce that Reince Priebus is joining Michael Best & Friedrich LLP as President and Chief Strategist in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. After serving the American people under the Trump Administration as Chief of Staff, Reince will bring his wealth of knowledge and unique understanding of federal, state, and local issues to advise and counsel the firm and its clients,” managing partner David Krutz announced via a statement on the firm’s website.

Additionally, Priebus will be represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau, giving speeches on Trump, Capitol Hill and politics in Washington.  He currently has events lined up in New York and London, as well as speaking at a dinner in South Korea last week.

“Reince has a truly 360° view of the current state of affairs in Washington. He offers insight into the inner workings of the Trump White House, forecasts the progress that is possible during the current Administration, and explains not only where the Republican Party has been but also where it’s going in the lead-up to the midterms,” said Washington Speakers Bureau vice president James Schiefer, Jr.

Priebus served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2011 through January 2017, when he began service as White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump until last July.

President Trump Suggests Challenge to NBC’s Broadcast License

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Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump tweeted that NBC’s broadcast license should be “challenged” and the network is “[b]ad for country!”

There is no license granted by the federal government to NBC or any national network. However, individual stations and affiliates are registered with the FCC — including more than 200 NBC affiliates. This registration is for the broadcast license at local stations, and not associated with a network’s news division or non-news programming.  The purpose of these licenses is to prevent different stations from transmitting their signals on overlapping wavelengths, which would block individuals from tuning in.

The president’s comments come on the heels of a recent NBC News story citing three unnamed officials who were “in the room” of an executive briefing.  In the story, NBC News stated that Trump sought to increase the U.S. nuclear arsenal tenfold.

Asked about recent statements by the President about “fake” news, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded that “the president is an incredible advocate of the first amendment.”

Spicer Regrets Arguing With Reporters Over Inauguration Crowd Size

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James Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer regrets berating journalists during his first White House press briefing in January.  During this session, Spicer had aggressively asserted the inauguration crowd size was the largest ever.

“Of course I do, absolutely,” Spicer admitted during an interview Monday with the New York Times.

During the first official appearance in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, Spicer announced that “[t]his was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.  Both in person and around the globe.”

Photos and videos of the inauguration showed fewer people gathered on the National Mall than for former President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration.  Additionally, Nielsen data suggests the television audience for the Trump inauguration fell below numbers for both Presidents Reagan and Obama.

Spicer made a surprise guest appearance at the Emmys on Sunday to make fun of this notable first briefing.  Appearing at the end of Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue, the former press secretary emerged on stage pushing a mobile podium similar to one used by Melissa McCarthy in a popular Saturday Night Live skit.

“This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period.  Both in-person and around the world,” Spicer responded to Colbert.

“This was an attempt to poke a little fun at myself and add a little bit of levity to the event,” Spicer explained during in his interview with the New York Times.

White House Lawyer Overheard Discussing Russia Probe at Restaurant in DC

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Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Ty Cobb, a top attorney on President Donald Trump’s legal defense team, was overheard by reporters at a prominent Washington, DC steakhouse discussing White House strategy dealing with special prosecutor Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian influence.

Cobb was brought in to oversee the White House’s legal and media response into the Russia probe last July, and was talking openly at BLT Steak with Washington lawyer John Dowd, who has experience in high-profile political cases.  Cobb and Dowd were sitting next to New York Times reporter Ken Vogel, who could clearly hear the conversation.

“The friction escalated in recent days after Mr. Cobb was overheard by a reporter for The New York Times discussing the dispute during a lunchtime conversation at a popular Washington steakhouse. Mr. Cobb was heard talking about a White House lawyer he deemed ‘a McGahn spy’ and saying Mr. McGahn had ‘a couple documents locked in a safe’ that he seemed to suggest he wanted access to,” reported the New York Times.

White House chief of staff John F. Kelly “erupted” and reprimanded Cobb for his indiscretion of discussing sensitive matters loudly in public, according to several people contacted by the New York Times following the incident.

“If you’re sitting, talking with someone at dinner, you need to be careful,” said Rep. Chris Collins, when asked on CNN about public officials audibly discussing official business in a public venue.

Hope Hicks Named White House Communications Director

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James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy White House.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that longtime aide Hope Hicks will become the official White House communications director.

Currently the White House director of strategic communications, Hicks has been serving as interim communications director after the firing of Anthony Scaramucci in August.

Hicks has worked for Trump even before his campaign for president, starting as public relations and model for Ivanka Trump’s fashion label.  As Trump started his campaign for president, Hicks joined as campaign press secretary.

There has been significant turnover in the White House press team, with the first communications director, Mike Dubke, leaving last May, followed by Scaramucci serving 10 days in that role. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer also resigned in July.

Steve Bannon Returns to Breitbart

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Steve Bannon speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo courtesy Wikimedia.

President Donald Trump has been shuffling senior staff at a brisk pace of late, including firing of chief strategist Steve Bannon on Friday.  Following his dismissal, Bannon announced he would be turning to the right-wing online blog he ran since the death of founder Andrew Breitbart in 2012.

“The populist-nationalist movement got a lot stronger today,” said Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow.  “Breitbart gained an executive chairman with his finger on the pulse of the Trump agenda.”

Only hours after being dismissed by the president, Bannon was already leading an editorial meeting for the online venue.  “We have a duty to the country to be the vanguard of ‘The Movement,’” he reminded staff, according to one person on the call.

Since returning to Breitbart News, the portal has already published stories critical of many current Trump staffers, including criticizing “New York Democrat globalists” in the administration such as first daughter Ivanka Trump, senior advisor Jared Kushner and chief economic advisor Gary Cohn as well as “hawks” like national security advisor H.R. McMaster and his deputy, Dina Powell.

In an interview with the Weekly Standard following his dismissal, Bannon seemed to lay down the line for the next phase of his relationship with the White House.

“The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” Bannon said.  “We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency.  But that presidency is over.  It’ll be something else.  And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days.  But that presidency is over.”

Meanwhile, the “War Room” strategy of Bannon’s White House seems to be on pause, with most promises such as countering the rise of China, trade and immigration still unfulfilled.  According to an administration official, Bannon’s white boards he used to map out political strategies were now in storage.

Presidential Aide Hope Hicks Takes On Expanded Communications Role in White House

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James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy White House.

White House director of strategic communications Hope Hicks is stepping into an expanded role with new responsibilities as the administration searches for its third communications director since January.

Hicks will take on the duties normally assigned to the communications director on an unofficial and temporarily basis.  She will also work with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on finding a permanent replacement for the communications director role in the administration.

She is one of President Donald Trump’s most trusted aides, having served as press secretary of his presidential campaign in 2015.  Hicks also has close ties to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser.

The communications director role has been vacant since Anthony Scaramucci was fired by newly-appointed White House chief of staff John Kelly only 10 days after joining the administration.  Prior to that, Mike Dubke served in that role for 88 days, with a friend saying he was frustrated with the disorganization within the executive branch.

Huckabee Sanders: Televised White House Briefings to Remain ‘For Now’

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Photo courtesy Pixabay.

Last week, new White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave tepid support to returning to the tradition that White House press briefings would likely remain on-camera, potentially defusing an issue of contention with the press corps.

“Yeah, I think for now,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. “We’ll see what happens.”

Sanders was promoted to press secretary after her predecessor, Sean Spicer, resigned following the announcement that Anthony Scaramucci would be appointed White House communications director. Less than two weeks later, Scaramucci was fired by incoming chief of staff John Kelly.

She also recently took over the White House press secretary’s Twitter handle from Spicer, which has been handed down to staffers in that role since the Obama administration.

Sean Spicer Turns Down “Dancing With The Stars”

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Daniel Lippman, Tammy Haddad, Sean Spicer. Photo courtesy of Haddad Media.

The next season of “Dancing With The Stars” will be a bit less Spicy, as outgoing White House staffer Sean Spicer has turned down an offer to compete on the dance floor.

While Spicer reportedly was flattered by the offer, he rejected it due to “an overwhelming number of commitments in the Fall.”

Friends and colleagues also say that the former press secretary would be challenged with appearing on the show.  “He’s not a good dancer,” one source told the online Hollywood and entertainment news blog TMZ.

Spicer is in contact with most major TV and cable news networks for interview opportunities once he leaves the White House.  He also has been in contact with Hollywood agencies, in hopes of securing some television appearances, along with pursuing a book deal and several speaking arrangements.

“Dancing With The Stars” is scheduled to air its 25th season on ABC starting September 18.