Inside the White House Press Corps: Chip Reid

Since re-joining the White House beat on the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid has distinguished himself as one of the toughest questioners in the Brady Briefing Room. In this edition of Inside the White House Press Corps, Chip speaks frankly about the role of the Press Secretary, compares the Obama White House to the Bush administration, and much more. In part 1 of our interview, Chip talks about being a good reporter, why he's harder on Robert Gibbs than he might otherwise be, and what the Bush and Obama administrations have in common. Transcript: I'm Chip Reid, I'm with CBS News and i've been here at the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration. I also covered the Clinton White House on and off but did not cover George W. Bush at all, so it's back to the future for me. WHAT MAKES A GOOD WHITE HOUSE REPORTER? Persistence. You work long hours..uh..eager to make contact with anyone and everyone who knows anything about what goes on here; old friends, new friends, people who used to work here. Everybody you can be in touch with at various departments. You know, having covered the hill for a long time, and worked on the hill for a long time before that, I've got a lot of friends up there. You really don't just cover the White House, you cover Washington, so someone who has a lot of experience covering all the different branches really helps. But more than anything else, it's just persistence. CAN YOU THINK OF SOMEONE BESIDES YOURSELF WHO REALLY EMBODIES A WHITE HOUSE REPORTER? Back when I was covering Clinton, I thought that...my gosh, the name escapes me...but there were a couple print reporters with the New York Times back then, and they were constantly working it. Constantly working the story, and I kind of used them as role models. You don't just cover what the White House is giving you; you're always looking for some other angle on this. If you're going to sit here and get spoon fed by the White House, then you're going to feel really stupid. YOU TEND TO SORT OF PROBE A LITTLE HARDER, SOMETIMES YOU TAG-TEAM WITH HELEN, THERE. Yeah, Helen and I do tag-team questioning sometimes. She loves to jump in if I'm not getting an answer to a question, and I try to do the same with her. I think it really helps in this briefing room for people to jump in and help each other and make Robert Gibbs realize that a question he may be treating as absurd or unfair is not, and I think it helps to show some unity in the room. WHAT ONE THING WOULD YOU DO TO IMPROVE THE BRIEFING PROCESS More openness, obviously. I understand that Roebrt's got a job to do, and Mike McCurry had a job to do, and Dee Dee had a job to do, and all the people I've seen here and fought with here have a job to do. They work for the president and their job is to protect the president, but their job is also to inform the American people through us and by answering our questions. I understand the tension for them--that protecting the President comes first--but informing the Aerican people is also part of their job. They work for the American people, too. And we're trying to get information for them--for our viewers and readers. I may be saying something that's going to be laughed at behind those closed doors, but more openness is what it's all about. And it shouldn't be a briefing where at the end, we walk back to our office and say "Well that was a waste of time." And it can be deeply frustrating that no matter how hard we probe, sometimes very little comes out in these briefings. Some days, I would be better off working the phones for that hour than being in here. I NOTICE VERY OFTEN WE END UP ASKING THE SAME QUESTION 8 or 9 TIMES WITHA LITTLE VARIATION TO PULL EVERYHTING OUT. DO YOU THINK IF I ASKED ROBERT OR BILL THAT PROTECTING THE PRES WOULD COME FIRST? That's a good question. I'd like to hear their response, but certainly that's what their job is. Robert's in an interesting position, and I think it's one reason people get a little more frustrated with him; because Robert knows so much. All of the other press secretaries I've worked with were not in the tiniest little circle, but Robert is. Robert knows what's going on here. And I think that's where people push him especially hard. It's why I do. Because I know he knows. So I'm trying to get in that inner circle more than he wants us to get. He's in the little meetings, in the big meetings and everything else. He's in the inner circle, which was not true of Bill McCurry, it was not true of Danny Meyers or Bill Lockhart or any of the people I worked with in the Clinton years, but Robert Gibbs is right in there. DOES THAT TENSION CARRY OVER INTO YOUR PERSONAL INTERACTIONS WITH ROBERT GIBBS? I actually like the guy a lot. I think he's really dedicated to protecting his boss, which I can understand. There's a lot of loyalty in this White House; it's a little more like the Bush White House than the Clinton White House. That was one of the nice things about covering the Clinton White House; people would talk to you out of school more than they do here. It was a different operation, wider open. Clinton didn't have--I'm not sure if it was the loyalty, that was part of it. But Clinton didn't have the control. Partly because Obama is a meticulously organized guy, and he wants information to come out in a meticulously organized way, but there's also an intense loyalty here--kind of like there was with George W. Bush--which is why you've got to go to so many other sources to get the information. Next: Part 2 - In part 2, Chip Reid explains why he's not on Twitter, talks about Robert Gibbs' attitude, takes on media bias, and channels Helen Thomas. Transcript: TO WHAT DEGREE DO YOU THINK THE MEDIA INFLUENCES THE QUESTIONS THAT ARE ASKED HERE? Not a tremendous amount. Certainly they bring up topics that are the buzz in Washington, and it's going to be hard not to ask those questions. But one of the interesting things about Robert is--and you may recall, Dana Millbank wrote a piece a while back in the Washington Post bascially accusing Robert of being combative, condescending and smug--I don't think he used the word smug, but he did with me when he described the article he was going to write. But since that day, Robert has stepped back a bit. I don't know if it's because of that. There may have been other reasons. But I have sensed a lessening of Robert's combative attitude. I'm not saying he doesn't give more information. It's like pulling teeth. But he doesn't try to one-up you and make you feel like he's smarter than you are. Sometimes you feel like that when he says "Well, you just asked a question that contradicted that." I don't have a position. How I feel about the issue is irrelevant. I'm just asking what I think the American people want answered, and they may sound contradictory, but it doesn't matter. I may be asking one question liberals want answered and another conservatives want answered. My personal opinions are irrelevant. I want to ask questions that people out there are burning to ask themselves, more than anything else. DID YOU THINK HE WAS OVEREXPOSED? Obama or Rob? haha You know, I don't know. I didn't really have an opinion on it. I just wanted their opinion. Certainly there's an argument to be made that if you hear him talking constantly; not enough, in my opinion, on press conferences and places people are asking him questions. But if he's going to be giving this many statements, to a point where the words are becoming kind of buzz in the background, I think there's an argument to be made he's overexposed. But on the other hand, you have people saying Obama didn't explain health care enough. Does that mean they want him out there? I don't know. I don't know if he's overexposed, but I think it's a very legitimate question. There's no such thing in being overexposed in putting himself in a position where we can ask him tough questions, but there is if he's just going to be making statements. DO YOU THINK THERE'S ANYTHING TO THE IDEA OF MEDIA BIAS? I don't. There's a perception of media bias because if whoever's in the White House is not answering our questions, then we're going to hold their feet to the fire and be combative. People are may interpret that as bias. YOU RECALL, A LOT OF REPORTERS FROM THE BUSH YEARS SAID THEY WEREN'T TOUGH ENOUGH ON BUSH. In the beginning, yes, I think that's true. I didn't cover Bush, but I do remember a period where there wasn't any doubt people were afraid to be tough on Bush because it was so soon after 9/11. There was a period where there was a soft approach, but it was hard not to because some people thought it generally looked unpatriotic to be beating up a president so soon after 9/11. They came around; it took a while. It's hard for me to judge because I wasn't there, but it's a tough position to be in, to beat up someone after such a horror as 9/11. I'M EMBARRASSED TO SAY THIS, BUT I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF YOU'RE ON TWITTER? I am not. I'm old fashioned guy. I love talking to the audience that I talk to on the evening news. I also do a lot of blogging and a lot of speaking to groups. I don't charge anything; you can't do that. But I certainly reach out to a lot of people. One thing about Twitter and CBS is that from the White House, Mark Knoller dominates Twitter. For me to compete with him would be...well, Mark KNoller has been covering the White House since, I believe, Abraham Lincoln. That's not nice to say, since he's about my age. But he has been here a long time, and he knows the history and is an incredibly valuable presence on Twitter. I commend him for it. IF YOU HAD ONE QUESTION OF ANYONE LIVING OR DEAD, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY? It would probably be Duane Allman. "Why did you ride that motorcycle into that truck?" No, that's a flippant question, but I miss his music. It would certainly be Abraham Lincoln, and it would be "Any regrets about what you did with the Civil War?" I'm a Civil War and Abraham Lincoln nut. I'm not sure if there would be one question in particular, but it would basically be to ask Abraham Lincoln if there would be anything he would second-guess during the Civil War. HELEN THOMAS GAVE ALMOST THE EXACT SAME ANSWER. Helen and I are bonded. We're like the odd couple in the front row. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW APPLE IPAD? I kind of like it. I haven't really looked into it enough. People say it's big and bulky, but for traveling on planes and trains and while you're driving--just kidding! I like the immense versatility of it. ANY THOUGHTS ON THE NAME? There certainly have been a lot of jokes; some good ones in fact. I THINK WHEN YOU SAID BIG AND BULKY, THAT TOOK CARE OF IT WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE GUILTY PLEASURE TV SHOW? My wife is a nut about American Idol. I resist it every year, and I'm sitting on the sofa reading and she's watching American Idol, and every year, I get sucked in. My father is a music teacher, and I've sung in choirs my whole life, until I got into this business at 33 years old. I'm really into the human voice, so once they get to the really good people at the end, I really get into it. HAVE YOU EVER DIALED IN TO VOTE? No, my wife does that. And my other guilty pleasure is Jeopardy. I have to do that every night. DO YOU TAUNT THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU WHO DON'T KNOW THE ANSWERS? No, it's just me and my wife. If we could go on that show together, we would kick butt. Next: Bonus question - Star Trek or Star Wars? Chip's surprising response. As a matter of personal interest, I asked Chip if he was a Trekkie or a Star Wars fan. I expected, perhaps, a debate on the relative merits of the Corbomite Maneuver vis a´ vis the Kessel Run. Not exactly. That's right, folks, Chip Reid is a fan of the lamest of sci-fi subgenres, the laser-free, we-mean-you-no-harm ET film. You heard it here first. He does deserve a measure of credit for being able to do a decent-for-a-non-Trekkie "Spock hand."

Inside the White House Press Corps: Chip Reid

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Inside the White House Press Corps: Chip Reid

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