When asked why the press briefings are held off camera, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon possibly sarcastically answered that more briefings are off camera because Press Secretary Sean Spicer got fatter.
The Atlantic reported, “Neither Spicer nor deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders responded to queries about the changes to the briefings. Asked why the briefings are now routinely held off-camera, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said in a text message “Sean got fatter,†and did not respond to a follow-up.”
In any other White House, this answer would have been automatically assumed to be a joke, but this is the notoriously vain and superficial Donald Trump we are discussing, so nothing can be ruled out. Trump has constantly criticized Spicer’s appearance and performance at the briefings, as Sean Spicer wasn’t his first choice for press secretary.
While it is entirely possible that the White House has moved the briefings off camera because Trump is unhappy with Spicer’s physical appearance, it doesn’t explain why audio has also been banned. One suspects that the blackout of press briefings has nothing to do with Spicer, and everything to do with the fact that this White House has no answers on the Russia scandal and is trying to suppress information from getting out to the American people.
The taxpayers are footing the bill, and they deserve to know why this administration is dodging public accountability.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
