Biden pledges return to daily press briefings as president

White House hopeful Joe Biden vowed his administration would revive daily press briefings, a tradition that has become less and less frequent under President Trump.

“We believe in the power of free press. That’s why I’ll return immediately to daily press briefings in the White House, the State Department and the Defense Department,” the former vice president said Thursday during a speech on foreign policy. 

In speech on foreign policy, Joe Biden says, “We believe in the power of free press—that’s why I’ll return immediately to daily press briefings in the White House, the State Department, and the Defense Department.” https://t.co/sAOoyPpzdE pic.twitter.com/H5jJFkzsNI

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 11, 2019

Once a regular occurrence, daily White House briefings have become increasingly rare under Trump, who has an acrimonious relationship with mainstream news outlets. The last official White House press briefing was March 11. 

{mosads}Reports surfaced last month that White House officials are debating whether to restore the daily news briefing following the departure of former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Proponents say the communications team should hold at least a daily untelevised briefing, while critics note that Trump prefers to shape the White House message via his personal Twitter account.

Trump announced in January that he told Sanders to stop holding daily press briefings, saying he told her “not to bother” because “the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately.”

The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the “podium” much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019

“This retreat from transparency and accountability sets a terrible precedent,” White House Correspondents’ Association President Olivier Knox said in a statement in response.

“Being able to question the press secretary or other senior government officials publicly helps the news media tell Americans what their most powerful representatives are doing in their name.”