Tomorrow, President Barack Obama will hold the final press conference of his Presidency. The event will take place in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, just steps from the Oval Office. The cramped space in the West Wing, with seven rows of seven seats apiece, has served as the main theatre of conflict between Presidents and reporters since the Nixon era.
Like Obama’s other final acts in office, the event has taken on new meaning in light of Donald Trump’s election. Over the past few days, officials from the incoming Trump Administration have publicly debated whether the briefing room has outlived its purpose, and if the press should move to a nearby building. An Esquire report described the potential move as a strike against a hostile press corps in the wake of Trump’s New York press conference last week. The President-elect lashed out at CNN (“fake news”) and Buzzfeed (“a failing pile of garbage”) for their reporting on the controversial dossier assembled by a former British intelligence agent, which included wild and unverified accusations about Trump’s activities in Moscow and his relationship with the Kremlin. CNN reported that intelligence chiefs had presented both Obama and Trump with a two-page summary of the document; Buzzfeed followed by publishing the thirty-five-page dossier.
“They are the opposition party," one official told Esquire. “I want 'em out of the building. We are taking back the press room.”
On the record, other Trump officials insisted that the discussions within the transition team were not, contrary to the anonymous official’s bravado, about evicting reporters from the White House, where many news organizations have work spaces, but simply about using a larger space in the White House complex for the briefings.
Reince Priebus, the incoming chief of staff, characterized the potential change as an attempt to facilitate “more access,” by using a theatre with more seats. During the early weeks and months of the new Trump Administration, media interest in briefings by Sean Spicer, the incoming press secretary, as well as by Trump, will be particularly high.
To many Americans, Priebus’s suggestion probably sounded reasonable. What’s wrong with holding briefings in a larger space? But the White House Correspondents' Association, which represents reporters in negotiations about access to the President and controls the process for assigning seats in the briefing room, was alarmed. “The briefing room is open now to all reporters who request access. We support that and always will,” Jeff Mason, the president of the organization, said in a statement. “We object strenuously to any move that would shield the president and his advisers from the scrutiny of an on-site White House press corps.”
Mason and Spicer met for two hours on Sunday, but the issue was not resolved, and the threat of the briefings being relocated remains. (Although Spicer did not make any promises about the briefing room, he “expressed concern that journalists adhere to a high level of decorum at press briefings and press conferences,” according to a readout of the meeting from Mason, which is akin to a spokesman for Miley Cyrus requesting that concert attendees dress modestly and not engage in any provocative dancing.)
The Obama White House has hardly been immune to complaints about access and its treatment of the press. The last eight years have been marked by an escalating cat-and-mouse game between a communications staff that has constantly sought new ways to directly communicate with the public and a corps of White House reporters who see the efforts as a manipulative attempt to limit their access. Obama’s early use of Twitter and Facebook to make news was seen as controversial, as was the White House’s use of its own videographer to record the President in settings to which the press had no access. The White House’s production of “West Wing Week,” an in-house “news” show with a Pravda feel, was mocked by reporters. And Obama’s use of non-traditional venues for major interviews—“The Tonight Show," "The Daily Show," "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown," "Running Wild with Bear Grylls," and ESPN—often frustrated reporters.
“These things were viewed as engaging in propaganda actions and trying to upend and silence the White House press corps,” a senior Obama official told me. But despite all their attempts to communicate a rosy view of the White House, there were lines that Obama’s team never crossed, including booting the press corps. Trump officials’ stated reason for the proposed change—that a bigger space will improve access—is silly. For years, the size of the audience at daily briefings has ebbed and flowed depending on the news. While it’s not the most comfortable space when it’s packed, the briefing room has always been able to accommodate a surge in reporters.
The fact that any reporter, upon request, can walk through the White House gates and into the building to ask the press secretary for an on-the-record response to anything on her mind is one of the great modern traditions of American democracy. The Obama official, like many reporters, was highly suspicious of the Trump team’s motives for wanting to relocate the briefing. “It feels more like a solution in search of a problem,” he said.
Tomorrow, Obama may become an unlikely ally in this fight. According to the official, the President is planning to weigh in on behalf of the White House press corps. Though he insisted it was a message Obama intended to send before he knew the results of the election, his remarks will have added weight, given Trump’s unusual disdain for the press.
“This will be his chance to show his respect to the White House press corps and the men and women who work there every day,” the official said. “To affirm the important roles that the White House press corps plays in our democracy and in holding people accountable, including the outgoing President.”