Fox News WH Correspondent Condemns Trump Admin New Press Pool Rules: ‘Gives Power to the White House,’ Not the People
Fox News Senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich criticized the Trump administration’s Tuesday announcement it would determine which media outlets had access to President Donald Trump.
Heinrich, in a post on X Tuesday, said stripping that power from the White House Correspondents Association would “not give the power back to the people” as the Trump administration claimed it would.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the WHCA of wielding a “monopoly” on information from White House access. She said the association would no longer oversee which reporters were rotated in and out of the press pool.
“I’m proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch television shows, and who listen to your radio stations,” Leavitt told reporters at her daily briefing. “Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team. Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join, fear not, but we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.”
Leavitt added the decision to choose which reporters travel with the were intended to ensure his messages are “heard far and wide around this world. ”
On her X page, Leavitt later wrote:
A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States. Not anymore. Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people. Moving forward, the ‘White House Press Pool,’ will be determined by the White House Press Team.
Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join – but we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.
The WHCA slammed the decision. Heinrich later joined them when she shared Leavitt’s post and commented, “This move does not give the power back to the people – it gives power to the White House.”
She concluded, “The WHCA is democratically elected by the full-time White House press corps. WHCA has determined pools for decades because only representatives FROM our outlets can determine resources all those outlets have – such as staffing – in order to get the President’s message out to the largest possible audience, no matter the day or hour.”
