Following the grand tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt and paving the way for Michelle Obama, when Hillary Clinton became First Lady of the United States twenty-four years ago, she was eager to have her voice heard in the White House and pitch ideas for how to run the country. One of her ideas was to kick journalists out of the White House, which everyone in the White House was onboard with since it meant more secrecy surrounding their dealings, but the journalists kicked off and got all mad, so Bill Clinton and his administration decided not to go ahead with it and let the journalists in anyway.
Now, President-elect Donald Trump is dusting the cobwebs off Hillary’s proposal in the hopes of instigating this during his own Presidency, which begins on Friday, given how much he hates reporters publishing the things he says and does for everyone to see.
Turns out this ‘nasty woman’ has some Trump-approved ideas
The Bill Clinton administration even decided against keeping the media room securely separate from the rest of the West Wing, but Trump is certainly hoping to change that. He and his team are having serious discussions about whether or not to go through with this plan, which was proposed back in 1993 by the opponent he just beat to the Oval Office.
Trump will not be shutting out the press completely, he just doesn’t want them snooping around the White House.
Press conferences will instead be held at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door, which just so happens to be the same substitute that Hillary Clinton suggested in the nineties, back when it was known as the Old Executive Office Building.
Trump might succeed where Hillary failed
Whereas this failed under Clinton when the journalists reacted poorly to the news and it was eventually called off, Trump’s penchant for showing up the media and his rival Clinton might be the motivation he needs to pull this off.
Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary (starting on Friday), stresses that “no decision” has been made yet regarding whether to give journalists the boot from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. However, he did say that “there has been some discussion about how to do it,” which shows they are in the stages of loving the idea and looking for a practical way to put it into action.
George Stephanopoulos (whose name you might remember from “Friends”) was Bill Clinton’s press secretary at the time of Hillary’s proposal of the same thing in 1993, and he gives some insight into the standoff in his 1993 memoir “All Too Human.” He saw Hillary as a “problem” and spilled the beans that the ulterior motive behind her plan was to “reopen the indoor pool” that used to be in the White House “before Nixon made this the press room.” Trump’s hatred for reporters suggests that his reasoning is simply to get them out of the White House, and an indoor pool might just be a nice perk on top of that.
Jeff Mason, President of the White House Correspondents Association, has organised to sit down with Spicer to discuss this proposition.
Mason is staunchly against it. He says that he and his colleague “object strenuously” to the possibility of Trump and his team protecting themselves from “the scrutiny of an on-site White House press corps.” Depending on how peaceful the proceedings are, this could get heated.
