Opinion: His coronavirus briefings show why the executive branch needs to bring back the daily press conference
in the White House West Wing. So too was the audience, the impatient White House press corps, seated and standing with notebooks in hand. But instead of a designated White House briefer giving the download to reporters—taking their questions and sparring with them—the duties fell primarily to Vice President Mike Pence, who acted less like the “coronavirus czar” and more like a good old-fashioned White House press secretary., but he played the role of press secretary as if born to it.
I was never one of those critics who thought that simply because White House press briefings could turn silly, or because press secretaries could use them to spread lies, or because some reporters parlayed their time before the camera to pontificate or mount self-aggrandizing dramas that the White House pressers should be eternally snuffed.
This, then, is probably the reason Trump ended regular White House pressers and why we need to bring them back: When a press secretary or official briefer pronounces what government policy is across the departments and agencies, the government must in most cases abide by those policies or be forthright about abandoning or changing them when the time comes. But Trump doesn’t work that way.
In epidemic times like the ones we’re witnessing, the need for a constant and reliable source of information from the government on its policies—and when those policies have changed—has become even more essential. Based on Trump’s history, we know we can’t trust much of what comes out of his mouth. I want to trust Pence, but doubt that anyone so devoted to the president’s elephantine ego can be relied on to give the truth.
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