The White House has done what it can to try to limit Joe Biden’s access to the press to reduce the coverage of any potential gaffes that he might have. We saw that happen right before Christmas when the White House team booted the media right before Biden was to take questions from the nation’s governors about COVID. We hear Joe Biden say it periodically, that “they” don’t want me answering questions. It makes one wonder who the “they” are who seem to have the ability to tell the alleged most powerful man in the world what to do. Even with the best efforts of the White House team Biden continues to make mistakes and media are still curious about their actions at White House briefings.
But it turns out that the White House may be getting an assist from the White House Correspondents’ Association, with a hat tip to Omicron.
According to the White House Correspondents’ Association, they announced that after an emergency board meeting, they unanimously voted to “temporarily” reduce the White House briefing room to just 14 seats in response to Omicron.
“THROUGH THE OMICRON VARIANT WAVE” pic.twitter.com/4KPasE2gLT
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) January 3, 2022
Amber Athey, journalist, pointed out that it was actually cutting people out.
A rotating seat was available for all WHCA members when the WHCA restricted briefing attendance in the wake of the pandemic. The briefing area appears now to have been reduced to outlets that already had a seat.
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) January 3, 2022
Athey said that people who used to have to sit in the aisles will be eliminated. The smaller, independent shops would have the opportunity to take a seat in the rotating chair during the previous pandemic. Athey claimed that such a system would be eliminated.
In practice, this will mean that non-MSM outlets are less likely to be present in the briefing area and so there will likely be fewer Qs challenging them.
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) January 3, 2022
Note that you’ll be lucky to have one non left-leaning outlet in any given briefing day. This also doesn’t even include all WHCA members, like The Spectator. pic.twitter.com/mcpPhjDcdO
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) January 3, 2022
The question is, who will be dumped? This is an important step in the Biden team’s effort to defend Joe. It’s about the White House briefing rooms, where everyone is supposed to be regularly tested for their ability to enter. This tells you a lot about how the WHCA views protections.
The timing of this move is perfect as Joe Biden faces a lot more criticism than usual on many fronts. This includes his Omicron response and COVID general responses, along with crime and inflation. There are many questions regarding the shifting CDC guidelines, including Dr. Anthony Fauci’s flip-flop. However, the likelihood of any sort of answer depends on whether the media is willing to probe deeper. This reduces the amount of people who are willing to answer these questions.
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