White House Correspondents Insider

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

NYT Haberman Says Trump Will Contact Reporters Directly in Post-Hope Hicks White House

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Maggie Haberman in front of Air Force One, Photo Courtesy Vanity Fair

Donald Trump stunned reporters in the White House briefing room on Thursday, March 8th with a surprise appearance, his first ever in front of the correspondents who usually grill Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The brief appearance acted as a teaser for his planned meeting with Kim Jong Un. President Trump is reportedly angry at Sanders for her comments about his legal case with the porn star Stormy Daniels.

Washington’s favorite White House columnist, New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, says that this move is indicative of a post-Hope Hicks White House and for Trump’s interactions with the press a sign of things to come.

The Weekly Standard’s Alice Lloyd On #MeToo and Motherhood

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Alice Lloyd, writer for The Weekly Standard

The Weekly Standard’s Alice Lloyd is out with a bold new cover story on the #MeToo movement and the intergenerational divide it has exposed. In the essay, she discusses the challenges of motherhood and standing up for yourself.

She spoke to Jill Abramson, the first-ever female executive editor of the New York Times about life for women in the newsroom, and how the #MeToo movement is changing the status quo in the workplace. “I can remember the first day I went to work in the Washington bureau, two women reporters took me out to lunch to tell me everything: who to watch out for, who was a real asshole,” says Abramson.

Lloyd states that “It was only in October of last year that the Harvey Weinstein stories started to hit, yet it already has the unmistakable feeling of epoch-making history. Predatory men, perched on the ruling rungs of highly visible professions, fell one after the next…Whatever you call it, there’s no denying its purpose. What #MeToo’s critics all seem to miss is that the movement now underway represents a practical reorientation of the struggle for women’s equality. At its core is not a partisan argument, but an exceptionally American one: that we’re past due our equal freedom.”

Bridging the divide between generations of American women, she says, “The freedom to call a creep a creep—and not just destroy him, but change the course of history—means more when we remember how hard women have worked, bit by bit, proving our equal measure while also bearing our extra biological burden, just to claim our natural freedoms in the first place.”

You can read Alice Lloyd’s story in full here.

Don’t miss Jim VandeHei’s Five-Parter on Jared Kushner’s Fall

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Jim VandeHei, Jenny Licht and Mike Allen, Photo Courtesy Haddad Media.

Jared Kushner is on thin ice according to Axios’ Jim VandeHei, who writes in an epic story out Friday, March 2nd that President Trump’s son-in-law is facing a “slit-by-slit slow bleed”.

VandeHei mentions a series of embarrassments suffered by Kushner over the past week including losing his interim security clearance, losing his top communications staffer Josh Raffel, a bombshell Washington Post report suggesting that four foreign countries are discussing strategies to manipulate him, a New York Times front page detailing loans that his business has received after high-level meetings with the CEOs of Apollo and Citigroup, and last but not least a Maggie Haberman story detailing Trump’s frustrations with Kushner in recent days. VandeHei is quick to point out the fact that both Trump and Kushner both read Haberman’s stories.

You can read VandeHei’s full report here.

New York Times Names Cafe Milano Among Top Restaurants for DC Power Dining

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Clint Hill, Franco, Nuschese, Marcello Muzzatti and Daniel DeSimone at Cafe Milano, Photo Courtesy of Haddad Media

Clint Hill, Franco, Nuschese, Marcello Muzzatti and Daniel DeSimone at Cafe Milano, Photo Courtesy of Haddad Media

A New York Times story out Wednesday, October 19th named Franco Nuschese’s Cafe Milano among the top restaurants for power dining. According to the Times’ Shivani Vora, “with the presidential election just weeks away, the scene has been heating up throughout town.”

Cafe Milano has hosted numerous celebrities and politicos. Frequenters include President Obama and First Lady Michelle. Vice President Joe Biden celebrated his granddaughter Finnegan’s 18th birthday there.

Also on the list of top power dining include Georgetown’s Fiola Mare, 14th Street institution Le Diplomate, Centrolina, and NoMa newcomer Masseria.

For more on the DC power dining scene, check out Vora’s article here.

J-Mart Goes From Politico to New York Times

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Ben Smith,Jonathan Martin

Jonathan Martin goes from the best politico job in Washington to the number one job in political journalism. Originally with Politico from the very start, Jonathan Martin sent out notice yesterday that he’ll take on the role of National Politics Reporter at the New York Times.

If you could question just how essential J-Mart is to Washington, go no further than the mammoth memo sent out by Politico and republished on HuffPost.

In an email to friends and colleagues, Martin wrote:
“It is truly an awe-inspiring place. They are committed to the best traditions of New York Times journalism: depth, sweep and fearless reporting. But just as exciting for me, the paper is leading the way in fusing those values with some remarkable technological innovation.”

The same message contains a memo from the Times’ Political Editor, Caroline Ryan:
“I’m delighted to announce that Jonathan Martin will be our national political correspondent.

The job is a storied and special one at the Times, and has been home to such giants as Robin Toner, Adam Nagourney, Rick Berke, and, of course, R. W. Apple.

Jonathan is a natural for the role: he has an unending passion for politics, an intrepid journalistic spirit and an astonishingly extensive Rolodex.

He also has a deep love of political history (ask him about his LBJ fixation, when you meet him) and a startlingly detailed knowledge of campaigns and candidates at every level.

Jonathan, 36, was among the first hires at Politico and spent two years on the campaign trail writing about the historic 2008 presidential campaign. He then became White House correspondent, traveling across the country and overseas with President Obama.
After covering the midterm contests in 2010, he served as Politico’s senior reporter on the 2012 campaign, winning praise for his ability to break big news and offer ahead-of-the-curve reporting and analysis.

He came to Politico from the National Review and previously worked for National Journal’s political publication, The Hotline.

Jonathan is a huge fan and student of the Times. He is eager to team up with the gifted political reporters we have here, especiallythe supremely talented Jim Rutenberg – much as Jim did with Jeff Zeleny, who drove our stellar coverage of the 2012 race.

A Virginian, Jonathan is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College and is married to Betsy Fischer Martin, senior executive producer of Meet the Press. He is an adventurous explorer and appreciator of all corners of America, especially BBQ joints, state capitol buildings and Fenway Park.

Please join me in congratulating and welcoming him.”

We All Like Hillary Clinton (For Now)

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Tina Brown, Meryl Streep and Hillary Clinton Stage

If you thought you liked Hillary Clinton before, you may not in 2016. So claims data guru Nate Silver today at FiveThiryEight where he examines the curious case of how everyone loves the soon-to-be-former secretary of state.
[Read more…]

The New York Times Names New Washington Bureau Chief

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David Leonhardt was named the new Washington Bureau chief for The New York Times.  He was appointed by Jill Abramson who calls him “one of our finest writers and most elegant thinkers.” Leonhardt recently won the Pulizter Prize for commentary and is also the paper’s Economic Scene columnist.

Check out the full memo by the New York Times here.

The Zeleny Question: Smart or Silly?

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NY Times WH Correspondent’s Question at Obama Presser Provokes Big Reaction Online

During the president’s televised press conference on Wednesday night, the NYT’s Jeff Zeleny asked Barack Obama what had “surprised, humbled, enchanted, and troubled” him the most about the job, now that he was 100 days into it. Zeleny’s colleagues laughed, perhaps not in a complimentary way, and the online world zeroed in on whether the question was, as one site puts it, “brilliant or BS”?

Three takes from: MediaBistro, Christian Science Monitor and New York Magazine.