As the White House continually moves towards the regularization of off-camera press briefings, the media and Congress are capitalizing on the briefings’ newfound attention.
ABC News announced yesterday a new live streaming program, The Briefing Room, that will air following the daily press briefing. White House correspondents Jonathan Karl and Cecelia Vega along with congressional correspondent Mary Bruce and political director Rick Klein will appear on the program. The program is similar to post-game coverage found on sports as it covers the briefings topic by topic.
Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) also introduced a bill in the House requiring the White House to conduct at least two on-camera briefings a week. Text of the legislation is not yet available. Himes’s office told the Connecticut Post that the Trump Administration has held 2.7 press briefings on average each week, a number sharply down from Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. However, that number includes off-camera briefings, so Himes’s bill would not actually affect that number significantly.
The Trump White House has increasingly held the daily press briefings off-camera and had the press briefed by deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Press secretary Sean Spicer returned to the podium on Monday, his first time since June 20.