Opposing view: Access to the president is more important

Every White House has an obligation to inform the American people. While press briefings are one way, this White House provides far greater access in the most important way.

According to the White House Transition Project, in his first two years in office, President Donald Trump had nearly 600 on-the-record media interactions, more than any other recent president except Bill Clinton, and far more than his last two predecessors.

Just Tuesday, he took a dozen questions on the South Lawn.

This doesn’t include Trump’s use of Twitter, often over staff objections, which gives almost minute-by-minute insight into his thinking.

Isn’t hearing directly from our president, not spokespeople, more informative? Isn’t that preferable to the Joe Biden “candidate protection program” that shields him from the press?

And the argument that more news briefings would enlighten the public policy debate is unconvincing. When the White House has tried to use the briefing to drive policy discussion, the substance has been ignored.

Case in point, as the 2020 budget was released, CNN and MSNBC did not broadcast Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought during the briefing, but broke in later to show Press Secretary Sarah Sanders taking questions.

Earlier, the same networks didn’t broadcast a briefing with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, national security adviser John Bolton and National Economic Council Chair Larry Kudlow about the crisis in Venezuela.

When big networks ignore important briefings, complaints about the absence of briefings ring hollow.

Off-camera briefings continue and lead to smart questions. But there is grandstanding and gotcha journalism once cameras are turned on.

More briefings wouldn’t hurt, but a White House must inform the public, not feed the cable news cycle. This White House does it in the most important way: access to the president.

Raj Shah is a former White House principal deputy press secretary, chair at Ballard Media Group and an adviser to the Trump reelection campaign. Follow him on Twitter: @RajShah84