White House expresses frustration on media's coverage of special counsel report
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President Biden's team is going on offense following the Robert Hur report, in its latest attempt to combat what they feel has been negative and inaccurate media coverage of the president, and some reporters in the field aren't impressed.
White House Counsel spokesman Ian Sams sent a letter to the White House Correspondent's Association (WHCA) complaining that news outlets were "misreporting" the findings in the Special Counsel's report on Biden's handling of classified documents.
Sams took issue with reports that said Biden "willfully" mishandled classified documents, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Special Counsel Robert Hur did not recommend charges against the president following a months-long investigation into Biden's handling of classified materials.
He argued that Hur's decision to not press charges nullified the idea that the president "willfully" retained classified material, according to the letter he posted to social media.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at a news conference at the Filoli Estate on November 15, 2023 in Woodside, California. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images) ((Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images))
Kelly O'Donnell, the president of the WHCA, pushed back on the letter and argued that the White House's concerns should have been addressed in reaching out to specific news organizations.
"It is inappropriate for the White House to utilize internal pool distribution channels, primarily for logistics and the rapid sharing of need-to-know information, to disseminate generalized critiques of news coverage," O’Donnell said.
The Biden White House and campaign have also criticized the focus on Biden's age and memory, as Hur's report said a jury would find the president to be a "sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory."
T.J. Ducklo, a Biden campaign spokesperson, was highly critical of the media for focusing on the president's age and argued Americans deserved reporters who also cover former President Trump's comments and policy positions "with the seriousness and ferocity this moment requires," the AP reported.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gives remarks at the press briefing on January 24. (Andrew Thomas/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
That statement lamented on the focus on Biden's age and claimed there was an overall lack of coverage of some of Trump's recent controversial statements about NATO.
A White House reporter told Fox News Digital of the pressure campaign, "They can spin away, but the special counsel broke the seal. It's fair game now."
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates also complained about press coverage and the focus on Biden's age and memory following the release of the special counsel report.
Bates, reacting to a Puck News report on the press "avoiding" the topic of Biden's age, argued that journalists were focused on the president's age long before the Hur report was released.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference, Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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"Bolsters my theory that starting in 2019 some in the press began suffering from collective memory problems. Can't remember their own coverage. Can't remember even 1 of the historic Biden wins since then. Can't remember that the rightwing age attacks they treat as novel are... old," Bates wrote on social media.
A political reporter in Washington who's covered the Biden White House said many journalists are growing tired of the "nagging and complaining" coming out of the administration.
"The White House and campaign 'memos' to media criticizing our coverage are a joke to any serious reporter," they said.
They added, "White House comms would never admit to losing control of a narrative even though they lost it a long time ago. The campaign team is more aggressive, as they believe that fueling conflict with the press is the best path forward to generate positive results."
Spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office Ian Sams speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 9, 2024. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Biden has only given 33 news conferences in his first three years, lower than any president since Ronald Reagan, and that the 86 interviews he's given were also much lower than any other president since Reagan.
In comparison, former President Obama gave 422 interviews during the first three years of his presidency, and Trump had given about 300 to this point in his, according to Martha Kumar, a Towson University professor emeritus and press expert. She told the AP that Biden's news conference following the release of the Hur report "did not serve him well."
Sams also sent a letter to news organizations in September and urged the media to "ramp up their scrutiny" of House Republicans, who had opened an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
"It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies," the letter said.
New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said the White House has been "extremely upset" about coverage of President Biden's age. (Photo by Michael Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times/Anna Moneymaker)
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New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said Monday during an interview that the White House had been "extremely upset" about their coverage of Biden.
"We are going to continue to report fully and fairly, not just on Donald Trump but also on President Joe Biden," Sulzberger said. "He is a historically unpopular incumbent and the oldest man to ever hold this office. We’ve reported on both of those realities extensively, and the White House has been extremely upset about it."
"They are different. But they are both true, and the public needs to know both those things. And if you are hyping up one side or downplaying the other, no side has a reason to trust you in the long run," he said, after stressing that it was not the same as Trump's unprecedented legal troubles as a candidate.