White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will skip the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner next month after early friction with the press.
After repeated clashes with the WHCA over the past three months, Leavitt tore the association to run a “monetized monopoly” over the White House report.
“I won't be attending the White House correspondent's dinner, which is breaking the news for the 'Shawn Spicer Show',” Levitt said on a podcast of former White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Friday.
“This is a group of journalists who have been covering the White House for decades,” she said. “They started this organization because the president wasn't doing enough press conferences at the time. I don't think there's any more of that problem under this president.”
WHCA, a association of journalists covering the White House, was formed in 1914.
Up until the second Trump administration, the WHCA controlled the rotation of White House Pool reporters who gained special access to the president.
Every year, the WHCA hosts a selection of smiling dinners and famous guests for its correspondents. Normally the president attends the gala, but President Trump skipped it every year in his first administration.
When he last attended, then-President Barack Obama publicly roasted him in 2011, and Trump clashed with many of the top WHCA reporters.
Last month, the White House began intervening in the choice of pool reporters, spurring anger from the WHCA. Leavitt has requested the promise in an effort to welcome new media voices to cover the administration.
“They didn't really welcome other people, new media, independent journalists with their open arms, so we thought it was time to expand our coverage and decide who would become part of that 13 press pool.
The Trump administration has created room for a new media slot in the White House Pool by narrowing down the printwire service spots to a single rotational position. Previously, the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters had daily access to the pool.
WHCA Chairman Eugene Daniel condemned intervention in the rotation of White House pool reporters, claiming it was “tears at the independence of the US freedom press.”
This year's WHCA dinner is scheduled to take place on April 26th, featuring Amber Rafin, author of “Late Show with Seth Meyers,” who publicly destroyed Trump.
“He's missing out on one of the cool things about being president of the United States. But I don't know that there are people who look forward to being in the same room as him,” Ruffin jabed on CNN last month.
Trump has yet to publicly say whether he will be present or not, but there is widespread expectation to skip dinner.
