White House Correspondents Insider

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

The White House Correspondents’ Association Will Require Those Who Plan to Attend its Annual Dinner to be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19

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The White House Correspondents’ Association said Sunday it will require those who plan to attend its annual dinner this month to be vaccinated against COVID-19. 

Correspondents Association President Steve Portnoy said in an email that the board voted earlier Sunday to require attendees to show proof of vaccination in addition to an existing requirement to show a same-day negative test to attend the dinner on April 30.

“Same-day testing has been our plan for months, and now we’re closing the loop by adding the vaccine requirement. We’ll ask all guests to demonstrate their compliance with both via the Bindle app. Our exec director, Steve Thomma, is working with bureau managers and ticket buyers to ensure guidance on the use of the app is widely disseminated and understood by all attendees,” Portnoy wrote.

The association is also encouraging attendees to obtain a fourth booster shot if they are eligible as soon as this week for maximum protection by White House Correspondents Dinner weekend. This is critical, as Hollywood and Washington alike will flock to the District to celebrate not just at the Washington Hilton, but at the other multiple events taking place that weekend. 

What many Washingtonians describe as the “pregame” to the White House Correspondents Dinner: The Garden Brunch. This photo is from the 2017 brunch honoring the work of NS2 Serves, Sedrick Banks of Dog Tag Bakery and the Democracy Fund.

“The board’s policy is aimed at preventing anyone who is known to be infectious (as indicated by a positive result on a rapid antigen test) from spreading the virus at the dinner. But nothing we implement to protect the ballroom can reach the many social events other organizers throw around our dinner. Bear that in mind,” Portnoy wrote.

Portnoy cited an appearance by Anthony Fauci on ABC’s “This Week” where Fauci highlighted protocols by some places that are requiring both proof of vaccination and same-day negative test as part of the reasoning behind the enhanced protocols for the White House Correspondents dinner.

Several White House officials and congressional lawmakers have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week, many of whom attended the Gridiron Dinner, leading to questions as to whether Washington should continue to hold large indoor events, some for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Comedy legend Jay Leno presenting awards at the 2019 White House Correspondents Garden Brunch

“There are risks attendant to everything we’ll do over the next few weeks— hanging out with friends, going to briefings, attending Easter Sunday services or Passover Seders, and, of course, celebrating the First Amendment at our annual dinner. Each of us should judge our respective risk thresholds before engaging in any of these activities,” Portnoy wrote.

We look forward to a safe and fun White House Correspondents Dinner weekend and encourage everyone to be mindful and follow proper COVID-19 restrictions ahead of all festivities. 

WHCA Announces 2022 Journalism Awards Recipients 

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The White House Correspondents’ Association announced the winners of its 2022 journalism awards yesterday, Jonathan Swan, Zeke Miller and Mike Balsamo, Jonathan Karl, and Brendan Sialowksi.

The winners for presidential news coverage include journalists from ABC News, AFP, the Associated Press and Axios. The winning work covered the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, The U.S. Capitol Insurrection, COVID-19, and a meeting between President Joe Biden and Vladmir Putin.

In addition, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Washington Post and an international consortium of other media partners was honored for work exposing financial secrets of more than 330 current and former heads of state as well as the U.S. role in offshore financial systems.

“Our panel of independent judges had a formidable task, reviewing dozens of worthy entries,” said White House Correspondents Association president Steven Portnoy. “We are grateful for the panel’s efforts in identifying these winners, and we are excited to honor the recipients at our annual dinner.” The awards will be presented at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday, April 30.

These are the following winners from the White House Correspondent Association’s press release:

JONATHAN SWAN, AXIOS, THE ALDO BECKMAN AWARD FOR OVERALL EXCELLENCE IN WHITE HOUSE COVERAGE

See the coverage here 

From the Judges:

The judges select Jonathan Swan for the Aldo Beckman award from a competitive list of entries that demonstrated the impact of White House policies and decisions on people’s lives. Swan’s riveting “Off The Rails” series describing the post-election turmoil in the White House illuminated, with speed and detail, the last-ditch efforts to overturn the election. The series also revealed President Trump’s ongoing attempts to put a loyalty stamp on the government’s national security apparatus. The stories, and their accompanying podcast, have been source material for the Jan. 6 investigating committee and have remained relevant amid continued revelations about the events surrounding the assault on the Capitol. 

ZEKE MILLER AND MIKE BALSAMO, ASSOCIATED PRESS, THE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESIDENTIAL NEWS COVERAGE UNDER DEADLINE PRESSURE – PRINT

See the story here. 

From the Judges:

It started with a tip that led Mike Balsamo and Zeke Miller to the news most of America had been waiting for: The CDC was finally ready to relax the COVID-19 mask requirements. Balsamo and Miller drew on their sources to get the scoop, then they kept reporting through the day to deliver a tight, informative news stories on deadline that spelled out details of the new policy while capturing the mood of the moment, with voices from Capitol Hill to Sioux Falls. They also managed to look ahead to the challenges that lay ahead for enforcement of the new policy. 

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS, AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESIDENTIAL COVERAGE UNDER DEADLINE PRESSURE – BROADCAST

See the story here.

From the Judges:

While the insurrection was still unfolding, Jonathan Karl was delivering a comprehensive, even-keeled and thorough piece of television that was visually powerful and compelling. Karl’s richly sourced reporting provided his viewers with a sense of what he so accurately described as the “chaos and lawlessness striking at the heart of American democracy.” Karl was ahead of the curve, delivering in real time a detailed narrative that doesn’t hit one false note, even with a year’s perspective. His work on Jan. 6 defines “reporting under deadline pressure.” 

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, THE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESIDENTIAL NEWS COVERAGE BY VISUAL JOURNALISTS

The winning photo.

From the Judges: 

A quick glance at this photo might give the impression of a dull overall shot of men in dark suits. However, the Biden-Putin meeting in Geneva was a major story, and this image captured the underlying drama. Look closely. The body language and each game face tell the story. These summit photo ops are fast. In seconds, the handlers would be yelling “lights” and pushing the photographers out the door. Brendan Smialowski of Agence France-Presse had to read the room quickly and go for the one picture that told the story.  Smialowski did just that and captured a prize-winning photograph below. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, President Joe Biden, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov wait for a meeting at Villa La Grange June 16, 2021, in Geneva, Geneva.

THE KATHARINE GRAHAM AWARD FOR COURAGE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Washington Post and media partners around the world

From the Judges:

The committee found the breadth and depth of the reporting and production of the Pandora Papers undertaken by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Washington Post and media partners around the world to be a major feat by itself, managing 600 journalists from 151 countries, working in a dozen languages with interpreters to analyze, verify and report on information from 11.9 million documents and produce a series of stories across a wide variety of media platforms.

And then there is the impact of the reporting, which exposed financial secrets of more than 330 current and former heads of state, and the U.S. role in the offshore system, led to electoral and legislative change around the globe, but also physical threats against and jailing of some journalists. The project underscored the strength of collaborative reporting and overcoming technological obstacles to produce powerful journalism.

Read the winning stories here:

  1. Offshore havens and hidden riches of world leaders and billionaires exposed in unprecedented leak
  2. Foreign money secretly floods U.S. tax havens. Some of it is tainted.
  3. Global hunt for looted treasures leads to offshore trusts
  4. When Latin America’s elite wanted to hide their wealth, they turned to this Panama firm
  5. As a poisoned town sought justice, top chemical giant executive moved millions to tax havens
  6. While his Country Struggles, Jordan’s King Abdullah Secretly Splurges
  7. How America’s biggest law firm drives global wealth into tax havens – ICIJ
  8.  Czech Prime Minister secretly bought lavish French Riviera estate using offshore companies
  9. As Catholic order fought sex abuse claims, secret trusts devoted to it poured millions into American rental properties
  10. How U.S. sanctions take a hidden toll on Russian oligarchs
  11. Secret money, swanky real estate and a a Monte Carlo mystery 

And some reaction stories:

“Pandora Papers investigation prompts new scrutiny of law firms’ role in offshore abuses”

“Lawmakers and regulators around the world take action in the wake of Pandora Papers”

Leading politicians, governments, and elites from all over the world have been roiled by the largest-ever ICIJ investigation, which changed the global conversation on tax havens and financial crime.”

See the complete list of judges for each award here. 

Disney Taps Biden Aide Kristina Schake as Executive Vice President of Global Communications

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Via Walt Disney 

Kristina Schake, the head of the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine education campaign, has been named by Disney as its new executive vice president of global communications, according to a Disney Press Release.

After a long career in Hollywood, Washington beckoned and brought Kristina Schake to The White House to help Michelle Obama become one of the most successful First Ladies in history as her communications director. She’s been in Washington since; previously appointed by President Biden as counselor to the Secretary for Strategic Communications at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and heading the vaccine education campaign. She also served as the global communications director for Instagram.

Schake will report to Disney’s chief corporate affairs officer, Geoff Morrell. In a statement to Deadline, Morrell said, “Her experience in the public and private sectors, in political and corporate campaigns, make her ideally suited for this important role and to help me integrate communications with government relations, public policy, and corporate social responsibility into a new Corporate Affairs team. Together with the exceptional professionals at Disney, we will help the world’s greatest storytelling company engage even more effectively with our many stakeholders around the world.”

Following her graduation from John Hopkins University, Schake began her career working for Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan and later became a senior communications strategist for First Lady Maria Shriver, the Women’s Conference, and the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Initiative. She also co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights there, which worked to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage. She will be returning to California for her new role at Disney. We wish Kristina all the best.

The White House Easter Egg Roll is Back After a Two Year Hiatus 

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Former President Barack Obama at the 2010 Easter Egg Roll

Grab your baskets and get your Sunday best on: the White House Easter Egg Roll is back on Monday, April 18 after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Tickets to the event are lottery style, with an online application live until 10:00 AM ET on Thursday, March 31. Results will be released on April 7.

The Easter Egg Roll is the most popular publicly-attended annual event hosted by the White House, which welcomes thousands of people over the course of the day to participate in festivities on the South Lawn. 

The popular tradition dates back to 1878 when President Rutherford B. Hayes issued an order that if any children should come to the White House to roll their Easter eggs, they would be allowed to do so. Today, children and their parents alike flock to the White House South Lawn to celebrate.

The Washington Kastles Mascots at the 2011 Easter Egg Roll

The Egg Roll marks one of the first notable public White House events to return since the onset of the pandemic. In the last two years, public tours have been postponed, in addition to a dramatic scale-back of the dozens of annual holiday festivities and events.

Thursday’s Easter Egg Roll announcement also included news of rescheduled Spring Garden Tours, which are free and open to members of the public. This year’s tour dates are April 9 and 10. Earlier this month, the White House also announced that public tours will recommence on April 15.

More information about the White House Easter Egg Roll and about entering the lottery can be found here.

Trevor Noah to Entertain at 2022 WHCA Dinner

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Photo Credit: Trevor Noah/WHCA

The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) announced Monday that Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” is the headline entertainer for the 2022 WHCA Dinner on April 30, 2022, at the Washington Hilton.

Noah, who will also host the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards this year, is currently on tour with his comedy show, “Back to Abnormal.”

Due to the pandemic, this year’s dinner will be the WHCA’s first since 2019. And it will be the first dinner since 2016 to feature a sitting president.

In the WHCA’s news release announcing Noah, WHCA President Steven Portnoy of CBS News Radio said, “The White House Correspondents’ Dinner celebrates Americans’ freedoms and the working people who bring the news to the world. Trevor is an incredible talent who keeps us laughing — and thinking — four nights a week. We can’t wait for him to help bring our 100-year Washington tradition ‘Back to Abnormal.”

About the WHCA

Founded in 1914, the White House Correspondents’ Association exists to promote excellence in journalism as well as journalism education, and to ensure robust news coverage of the president and the presidency. We support awards for some of the best political reporting of the past year, and scholarships for young reporters who carry our hopes for vibrant journalism in the years to come. Each day, we work to ensure that the men and women who cover the White House have the ability to seek answers from powerful officials, up to and including the President. Our association comprises hundreds of members from the worlds of print, television, radio and online journalism. Their work, for outlets based in the United States and overseas, reaches a global audience. The association has been holding an annual dinner since 1921.

Biden to Hold Press Conference Amid Coronavirus Confusion and a Stalled Agenda In Congress

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Photo Source: Politico

Ahead of his one year anniversary in office, President Biden plans to hold his first formal news conference in months. Biden has remained out of the public eye this week as he prepares for just the second solo White House press conference amid slipping poll performance, 40-year record inflation levels looming, and all-time high COVID-19 cases. 

The President is seeking to  highlight his administration’s progress amid the ongoing pandemic. In announcing the press conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president “looks forward to speaking directly to the American people.” 

Averages of the most recent national polls compiled by both Real Clear Politics and FiveThirtyEight put Biden’s approval at 42% and disapproval at 52%. 

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House. But the president’s numbers began to decline in August at the wake of Biden’s much-criticized handling of the U.S. exit from Afghanistan and a surge in COVID-19 cases this summer.

Biden’s approval ratings average has hovered in the low 40s and his disapproval ratings average in the low 50s since mid-October. 

But a Quinnipiac University national poll grabbed headlines last week when it measured the president’s approval at just 33%. A White House memo described the survey as an “outlier.”

However, it’s important that Biden makes this press conference. “There are times when you have to step up. This is one of them,” said David Axelrod, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama, in The Washington Post. “You have to try to shape the narrative of the last year, because you know the media and opposition will.”

Top Biden-Harris Strategist Symone Sanders To Join MSNBC 

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Symone D. Sanders, the former Senior Advisor and Chief Spokesperson to Vice President Kamala Harris, joins MSNBC as an anchor, hosting a new weekend program on the cable channel. The hire marks the first big programming move for new MSNBC President Rashida Jones, who took charge of the channel in February 2021 after its longtime head Phil Griffin departed.

Tammy Haddad, Symone Sanders, former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, and Rachel Greenberg at the 2016 WHC Garden Brunch

Sanders’s new MSNBC program will air on Saturdays and Sundays starting in the spring, although the title, format, and time slot are all to be determined, according to NBC. She will also serve as a fill-in anchor on the network and host a show on “The Choice,” the streaming arm of MSNBC on NBCUniversal’s digital service, Peacock.

The release states that “Sanders will bring her expertise, spirited rhetoric and sharp political insight to MSNBC’s multi-platform channels. Her program will explore issues at the intersection of politics, culture and race and break down how decisions made in Washington impact electorates, industries, and communities across the country. She will also interview law and policy makers, top government officials, scholars, and thought leaders.” 

Highly accomplished, Sanders was one of the highest-ranking Black women in the Biden White House. In her mid-20s, she became national press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign, then joined CNN as a quick-witted and creative commentator. When a Republican official told her to “shut up” during a live interview, her viral response later became the title of her memoir, “No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America.”

Sanders joined the Biden campaign in 2019 as a senior adviser, with particular passions for issues of women and Black voters. She strongly advocated for her candidate, so much so that in March 2020 she tackled a protester who rushed the stage during President Biden’s speech on Super Tuesday. In the transition to the White House, she played an integral part of Vice President Kamala Harris’s team. 

In an interview with The New York Times, Sanders expressed her interest in moving beyond politics and transitioning into media. “I’m a young woman, a young Black woman from the Midwest,” said Ms. Sanders, who grew up in Omaha. “Yes, I do politics, but I’m also a consumer of pop culture. I watch the news, I check Twitter, but I’m also into ‘Real Housewives.’ I’m interested in reaching what I call the nonpolitical group chats, the discussions that are penetrating outside of Washington.”

Sanders isn’t the first White House alum to transition into television news. “I’m going to tell the truth, and sometimes the truth is critical,” she told the New York Times of her new role at MSNBC. “This administration has its critics, just like everyone does — I have my critics — and we’re going to have those conversations.”

As a political spokesperson, Sanders understands the full perspective of the intersection between politics and media. “Oftentimes, when it came to the vice president over the last year, people were not reporting on the truth, they were reporting on the gossip.” 

Speaking last month to The Omaha World-Herald about her decision to leave the Biden Administration, Sanders said that she planned “to continue to be a reliable voice for this White House on the outside, regardless of whatever I do next.” Sanders will remain based in Washington, D.C., as she begins her new role, and she plans to marry her fiance, Shawn Townsend, in August 2022.

Biden White House Press Briefings Return to Full Capacity

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This week, the James S. Brady White House Press Briefing Room finally returned to full capacity for the first time since March 16, 2020, marking a hopeful landmark as the White House returns to pre-pandemic norms.

Photo courtesy of CBS News.

The change was announced by the White House Correspondents Association on Sunday, along with the reintroduction of the pre-pandemic seating chart for the press room, featuring reporters from NBC, Fox News, CBS News, the Associated Press, ABC News, Reuters and CNN, reported Politico. The WHCA also announced that press capacity limitations for the North Lawn and indoor press workspaces would be lifted as well.

For over a year, the White House press briefing room had a severely limited amount of available seating, forcing the WHCA to issue seating rotations to give each outlet an opportunity to ask their questions – an arrangement that had pleased then-President Donald Trump who admitted back in March 2020 that there were only “two or three” reporters that he actually liked, Philip Wegman of RealClearPolitics recounts. “We should get rid of another 75 to 80% of you,” the president remarked at the time.

In late May, the press room returned to 50% capacity, allowing – for the first time in over a year – a full lineup of news outlets to fill the 24 available seats. However, some reporters were alarmed on Monday to see the James S. Brady room make such a quick turnaround. White House reporter and Co-author of Politico’s West Wing Playbook Alex Thompson noted that the briefing room had around 83 attendees on the first day back – far more than the available 49 seats.

Shortly after the two-minute warning leading into the press briefing, an unnamed voice asked the additional reporters not to stand in the aisles, as was customary prior to the pandemic. However, the request was not heeded.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who has been giving briefings to a limited audience since she first started at the White House, was quick to adjust to the crowded room, reports CBS News. “I’m very thrown off to where everyone’s seated – I’ll adjust to it,” Psaki quipped before taking questions.

According to a survey issued by the WHCA, more than 97% of its members reported being fully vaccinated, serving as motivation for the most recent changes. As early as two weeks ago, journalists were required to take nasal swabs before entering the briefing room. Now, per the WHCA’s new guidance, fully vaccinated journalists do not need to be tested and the White House will not be asking for proof of vaccination.

The White House Correspondents Association’s President Zeke Miller wrote in the announcement that, “Since the onset of the pandemic, our priority has been to keep journalists safe, while ensuring that the critical work of informing the public could continue uninterrupted.”

“We appreciate the sacrifices made by every member of the press corps and we thank you all for your cooperation over the last 15 months,” he added.

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.

President Obama to Netflix Spokesman Confirms Conversations with Barack and Michelle Obama

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The New York Times has exclusive reporting on conversations between President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, to join Netflix. “Former President Barack Obama is in advanced negotiations with Netflix to produce a series of high-profile shows that will provide him a global platform after his departure from the White House, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Under terms of a proposed deal, which is not yet final, Netflix would pay Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, for exclusive content that would be available only on the streaming service, which has nearly 118 million subscribers around the world. The number of episodes and the formats for the shows have not been decided.

Mr. Obama does not intend to use his Netflix shows to directly respond to President Trump or conservative critics, according to people familiar with discussions about the programming. They said the Obamas had talked about producing shows that highlight inspirational stories.

But the Netflix deal, while not a direct answer to Fox News or Breitbart.com, would give Mr. Obama an unfiltered method of communication with the public similar to the audiences he already reaches through social media, with 101 million Twitter followers and 55 million people who have liked his Facebook page.”

“President and Mrs. Obama have always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire,” Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to the former president, said Thursday. “Throughout their lives, they have lifted up stories of people whose efforts to make a difference are quietly changing As they consider their future personal plans, they continue to explore new ways to help others tell and share their stories.”

Read the rest here.