Am I Losing My MIND or Trump the only Administration that Holds A Press Briefing Everyday

Great Debates
1

I just turned 30 years old, so I’m not particularly old. However I don’t seem to recall any administration which has held a press briefing everyday single, freaking day since coming into office.!!

Everyday Sean Spicer and his face are giving white house press briefings, often times to cover, petty nonsense, do damage control from what tru,p said earlier, or dispute facts. At the end, he always says “see you tomorrow”. I don’t recall this during Obama or Bush’s administrations, and I would bet it was not the case in earlier administration istrations.

Will this ever stop, it’s not like Trump is very keen on divulging facts, or very friendly to press, seems more like publicity or to fix some screw from the daily petty gaffes of this president and those around him.

Hands down this is the strangest administration in American history.

If the press briefings were covering substance, I would understand but it seems to be just nothing but arguing with he press, no new information, etc.

So just tell me am I crazy or were past administrations holding this much press briefings everyday?

2

No, the White House Daily Press Briefing is a long tradition. Here’s a link, for example, to CNN coverage of the WH Daily Briefing of 2 May 2016. The “Daily Briefing” isn’t truly 7 days a week, 365 days a year - it’s generally every working day, plus as required at weekends or on public holidays.

They don’t usually get the present level of coverage and attention, however, since in the past they generally haven’t provided the splendidly surreal and grotesque entertainment that they do now.

3

I rather liked Josh Earnest’s press conferences, he had a way of being polite and sarcastic at the same time. When there was something to be sarcastic about, that is, which happened a lot more often after the election.

4

I can remember Marlin Fitzwater, who was acting press secretary for Reagan and press secretary for George HW Bush. They only got coverage on C-Span, rarely on PBS Newshour and even more rarely on the network news. Spicer is only getting so much attention because of his lies and the hostility between the Trump administration and the press.

5

Are they still bringing a cheering section every time?

6

Press briefings were a frequent happening back in the fictional Bartlet administration

Here

7

You know, the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

8

I was anticipating that this would be a closed administration, but to my astonishment, they’ve been relatively accessible – at least on 1600 PA ave. Probably going to be less so at the administrative level.

9

I’m not sure they are totally accessible so much as they don’t really know how to be airtight. Robert reich pointed out correctly that this administration leaks like a sieve. That’s a good thing though, as long as it’s not military secrets being leaked. So call it accidental transparency. Still a good thing.

10

Emph added.

Hmmm. I think I half-disagree.

  1. Anonymous leaks unsupported by documents are weak evidence if you’re trying to understand what’s going on, let alone pressure the government to change course or hold it accountable. Not worthless, but not great. Their unreliability makes them easy to shrug off. We’ll see if the leaks about Flynn’s call go anywhere - apparently there may be evidence to support the claims.
  2. They’re also a symptom of something going wrong. Either there’s political jockeying, where one person/faction’s trying to undercut another, or there are serious policy/personnel issues that are leading people to take a risk out of idealism.

I might analogize to a disease that has all kinds of visible symptoms but where diagnosis is ambiguous. Better than having no warning signs at all, but far from ideal - in part because the patient is obviously sick!

11

Brought to mind:

12

If it weren’t for that damn 22nd Amendment, I’d still be voting for that guy!

13

Even at the height of Watergate, Nixon’s press secretary still held daily briefings. A reporter friend of mind got a pass to attend one while he was vacationing in Washington, and said it was almost entirely taken up with routine matters like the daily schedule, who was visiting the President, what photo opportunities would be held, etc. The high spot supposedly was when Tom Brokaw’s voice cracked while asking a question and the other reporters laughed.

14

I don’t think its a good thing in general. The WH ought to be able to deliberate in private. And in that it makes them distrustful, it can lead to poor decision making. Supposedly one of the reasons the Muslim Ban EO was so half-baked was because drafts of all of Trumps earlier EOs had been leaked when sent to the relevant agencies, so the Admin decided (unwisely) to just send the ban order out unseen by the DHS lawyers.

Plus some of the stuff is obviously just staff making stuff up to embarrass the Admin. I don’t think much of the Trump crew, but I feel confident that they are capable of asking a janitor where the light switch is for the Cabinet room.

Obviously this doesn’t include leaks of actual mis-doings, such as Flynn and Pence lying to investigators about his Russian call.

15

There are some things the WH should be able to hold close to the vest, but administrations tend to want to keep everything possible secret except what they have to reveal or revealing only what benefits them politically.

But in most cases, I think the voters benefit from knowing more, as long as no vital secrets are revealed.

16

I addressed this in an earlier comment: if we’re relying on anonymous leaks, which are

a) selective b) motivated by not-always-selfless motives c) unreliable, for reasons a & b d) less than optimally useful, for reasons a-c

… then yes, leaks’re probably better than nothing, but they’re far from ideal.

(I worry that “this administration leaks like a sieve, therefore it’s de facto transparent” will be accepted as an argument for relaxing pressure for legit transparency. I think that argument’s complacent at best, nefarious at worst.)

17

Originally Posted by adaher
“But in most cases, I think the voters benefit from knowing more, as long as no vital secrets are revealed.”

But with these folks, the more they talk, the less you know.

18

AFAIK, all the modern ones have. The difference is that mostly it didn’t make the news like Trump does. I don’t know if this is part of his strategy (I think it is, since the guy is a glory hound wanting his name in the press constantly) or just a side effect of the massive bungling, cluelessness and shakeup his administration is doing. If this wasn’t so serious it would be hilarious seeing a certain type of Republicans getting exactly what they always claim to want, people who aren’t politicians and don’t even understand how the system works. I’m constantly astonished by how incompetent this administration is wrt politics and political maneuvering. I was reading an article yesterday that was talking about how it seems no one is home at the State Department…countries are trying to call and no one is answering, or if they do they have no idea of what to say or do. Can you imagine? Countries are trying to set up dialogues or get reassurances and no one is able to talk to them or set them up except at the highest level for fluff meetings. As if the only connections that matter are between Trump and the leader of another country. :smack:

19

Sure, what the spokesman say is unhelpful, but that’s normal for administrations. These guys are just more ridiculous about it. But the leaks actually have been informative. Vox printed copies of Trump’s executive orders before they were even made public.

20

They need to keep a handle on it, with raging Radicals like Blumenthal putting out bullshit news everyday.

It’s ok, at least the speeches don’t consist of I,I,I,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II,II, As ever Address Obama ever made did. ( God that was nauseating)