White House Reporters Laugh Themselves Silly At Trump Crack As Press Corps Out-Embarrasses Itself
White House reporters laughed themselves silly at a hostile wisecrack by President Donald Trump at an all-time embarrassment of a press conference whose sole purpose was to distract from Trump’s entanglement with ex-pal and formerly alive sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
The White House beat has changed a lot in Trump’s second term, along with the rest of the news media. While Trump bullies big media companies into ousting critics — openly cheering when he succeeds — most of the White House press corps has similarly been whipped into submission and/or been supplanted by the lapdogs that Trump and his people elevate.
Never was this more evident than when Trump held a press conference Monday to announce the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, DC — a move that critics have accurately described as a stunt to distract from the uproar over Epstein. The presser also comes days ahead of another big Epstein distraction — his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on U.S. soil this coming Friday.
During that press conference, MAGA uber-sycophant and Real America’s Voice Chief White House Correspondent Brian Glenn elicited a hostile crack from Trump that should have, at best, made a room full of reporters wince.
Asked if he would consider a larger, updated briefing room, Trump — who has made attacking the press a decades-long project that inspired literal terrorism against news outlets — “joked” that he didn’t “want to make life comfortable” for the press.
The crowd of reporters laughed uproariously instead:
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Is this the largest crowd that you’ve ever seen? That you’ve ever seen?
PRESS SECRETARY KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is definitely the most packed briefing, and I think all of you would agree. I think it’s why we need to build a ballroom.
UNIDENTIFIED: Yes!
US ATTY. JEANINE PIRRO: OH! She’s so good!
BRIAN GLENN: I’ve got a better idea.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: All right, Brian, go ahead.
BRIAN GLENN: You’re building the big, beautiful ballroom. Could we build a big, beautiful briefing room of new technology? More seats!
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t want you to be comfortable.
REPORTERS: (UPROARIOUS LAUGHTER)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: So, no, I don’t want to make life comfortable.
Some of this is attributable to the increased presence of MAGA-friendly media in the briefing room, but the balance of that press conference demonstrates ample evidence that it’s not just the laughter — normie outlets are happy to dance to Trump’s tune if it makes their lives easier.
There were a bunch of questions from reliable Trump suck-ups, but a handful of mainstream reporters — Trevor Hunnicutt from Reuters, Ed Lawrence from Fox Business Network, Ed O’Keefe from CBS News, Mark Meredith from Fox News Channel, to name a few — got questions in.
Not one of them challenged Trump in the slightest. Apart from the obvious effort to distract from Epstein, not one of them challenged Trump on his false claims about crime in DC.
Several of them asked about Russia — not one of them challenged Trump over his decision to hold the meeting on U.S. soil.
As Trump and his posse filed out, a few reporters shouted questions — one of which dealt with Epstein:
REPORTER: Will the Justice Department appeal the Epstein decision, Mr. President?
KAROLINE LEAVITT: We’ll see you guys tomorrow, we’ll have another briefing.
REPORTER: How long will the takeover of DC police last? Which (inaudible) will see the National Guard on their streets?
BRIAN GLENN: All of them!
With notable exceptions like CNN’s Kaitan Collins, Nancy Cordes of CBS News, and a few others, courage is in short supply in this press corps.
Watch above via the White House press pool.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!
Comments
↓ Scroll down for comments ↓