White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham on Monday reiterated that the administration will resume daily press briefings at the direction of President Trump.
In an email to CNN Business, Grisham doubled down on the administration’s criticism of the “spectacle” of White House press briefings under a Trump presidency, the last of which occurred 245 days ago, CNN noted.
{mosads}”That is ultimately his decision,” Grisham said, referring to Trump. “The briefings, which are meant to inform the public, were becoming a spectacle.”
Grisham has previously suggested that reporters used televised press briefings to “get famous” at the expense of the president.
“To be honest, the briefings have become a lot of theatre,” Grisham said in September on Fox News. “And I think that a lot of reporters were doing it to get famous. They’re writing books now. They’re all getting famous off of this presidency, and so I think it’s great what we’re doing now.”
The top White House aide has also defended Trump’s accessibility to the press, telling Sinclair Broadcasting’s Eric Bolling in August that Trump was “the most accessible president in modern history.”
“I don’t know what any of the press could complain about,” she added at the time.
Trump himself has frequently sparred with reporters at televised news conferences, including CNN’s Jim Acosta whose disagreements with Grisham’s predecessor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, often made headlines.