• Trump threatens to cancel media briefings.
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump threatened to shut down daily press briefings Friday as he sought to defend his White House from criticism of its shifting explanations and misstatements about the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Mr. Trump’s statements, through a tweet and later television interview, threaten a Washington institution that is the most high-profile forum for journalists to question the government about policy and the news of the day.
Press secretary Sean Spicer was back to answering questions Friday about Mr. Comey’s firing. The White House first said this week that Mr. Trump made the move because of a negative memo about Mr. Comey from the Justice Department, only to have the president later say he made the decision before seeing the memo. Conflicting stories were the topic of much media discussion.
That led Mr. Trump to tweet Friday morning, “As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy.”
He added, “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”
In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Jeannine Pirro set to air Saturday, Mr. Trump suggested eliminating the daily briefings and instead having one every two weeks — conducted by him.
“First of all, you have a level of hostility that’s incredible and it’s very unfair,” he said. He said Mr. Spicer is a nice man “but he gets beat up.” Mr. Trump would not directly answer questions about whether Mr. Spicer, who was out for two days because of Naval Reserve duty, would remain in his job.
Like many administrations, the relationship between Mr. Trump and the press has been tense. Starting with Mr. Spicer’s claim that the media inaccurately portrayed the size of Mr. Trump’s inauguration audience, there have been questions about whether the administration is knowingly providing inaccurate information.
There was some talk as Mr. Trump took office that his administration would do things differently and cut back on press access, but Mr. Spicer and his team have kept up regular briefings.
White House briefings and news conferences provide both “substantive and symbolic opportunities” for journalists to question government officials, said Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters and president of the White House Correspondents Association.
“That exercise, conducted in full view of our republic’s citizens, is clearly in line with the spirit of the First Amendment,” Mr. Mason said. “Doing away with the briefings would reduce accountability, transparency and the opportunity for Americans to see that, in the U.S. system, no political figure is above being questioned.”
Mr. Spicer said Mr. Trump’s “robust schedule” means that “sometimes we don’t get an opportunity to get in to see him and get his full thinking. We work very hard to get you the most accurate and up-to-date information every day.”