Bill would require White House to hold on-camera briefings

The increasingly camera-shy White House press operation — no longer the daily Sean Spicer soap opera and “Saturday Night Live” muse — would be forced to hold at least two weekly onair briefings for the media under a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Jim Himes.

It’s called the Free Press Act, which the Fairfield County Democrat said is needed to prevent the Trump administration from continuing to clamp down on media coverage of the president.

Himes noted that there have been only one or no televised press briefings in six of the past nine weeks, with Trump’s White House lagging behind the three previous administration in the number of briefings held.

Monday’s 2 p.m. briefing with Sean Spicer, his first since the end of June, was an audio-only event. It was be the third offcamera press briefing the White House has held this month.

The proposed legislation comes amid the deepening probe into the ties of Trump and his associates to Russia during the presidential campaign, including the revelation that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer to try to collect dirt on Hillary Clinton.

“This is the first administration in history that has explicitly sort of targeted the media as purveyors of fake news and enemies of the American people,” Himes told Hearst Connecticut Media. “That’s a very dangerous thing. As a politician I understand the media can be annoying from time to time. (But) the media plays an essential role holding people like me and the president our feet to the fire.”

Multiple requests for comment were left Friday with the White House press office.

According to Himes’ office, the average number of weekly briefings for Bill Clinton was 4.38, 3.42 for George W. Bush and 3.75 for Barack Obama. It’s 2.7 for Trump, a number that includes off-camera briefings.