Joining in the overwrought media reaction to the White House barring a CNN reporter from a Rose Garden event on Wednesday, on Thursday’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, Daily Beast Politics Editor Sam Stein urged the press corps to join together in a “collective pact” to “punish” the Trump administration.
After defending CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins shouting several questions during President Trump’s Oval Office meeting with European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker, Stein ranted: “So what we’re left with is a petty, vindictive, scared, temperamental White House that is taking steps that are unprecedented for administrations to take.”
He complained that the over-hyped controversy “was wholly predictive,” citing his experience reporting on the 2016 campaign: “I was at The Huffington Post during the 2016 campaign when my outlet was barred from covering Donald Trump rallies.” Stein called for his media colleagues to unite against the White House:
And at that point in time, the press should have taken upon itself to form some sort of collective pact to say, “If you do this, you will be punished in this way, this way, or this way.” The problem is, the Correspondents’ Association hasn’t gotten to that point yet. And there needs to more solidarity among members of the Correspondents’ Association so that this stuff actually has a penalty associated with it.
Perhaps Stein hasn’t been watching the press coverage of the Trump administration, but the “punishment” is already delivered on a daily basis.
Here is a transcript of the July 26 exchange:
12:47 PM ET
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ANDREA MITCHELL: Let’s get the Inside Scoop from Kimberly Atkins, Chief Washington Reporter for The Boston Herald and an MSNBC contributor. And Sam Stein, Politics Editor for The Daily Beast and an MSNBC contributor. Kimberly, first to you. This was unprecedented, she [CNN’s Kaitlan Collins] was doing her job. And it did at least elicit universal press solidarity, including the president of Fox News.
KIMBERLY ATKINS [BOSTON HERALD]: It did, it brought all the press together. She was acting as a pool reporter. She was doing her job on behalf of a broad number of journalists in that.
MITCHELL: All the rest of us.
ATKINS: All the rest of the journalists, to get that information from the president, asking questions. It’s very frequent. Anybody who’s seen any of these press availabilities know that often after the press is told to go, shouted questions get answered by the president. It was her job to do that. But this is also a president who calls the press the enemy of the people. I think, politically, he probably see this as a win because it plays well with his base.
MITCHELL: And Sam Stein, it was questions – they were questions about Michael Cohen, they were questions about news of the day. Often he wants to answer those.
SAM STEIN [DAILY BEAST]: Yeah, I mean, let’s put aside that there’s anything controversial that she did. This was a completely routine act of covering the White House. These are incredibly newsworthy moments and topics to cover. Any other reporter in that situation probably would have asked the same questions. So what we’re left with is a petty, vindictive, scared, temperamental White House that is taking steps that are unprecedented for administrations to take.
The problem is, it was wholly predictive. I was at The Huffington Post during the 2016 campaign when my outlet was barred from covering Donald Trump rallies. And at that point in time, the press should have taken upon itself to form some sort of collective pact to say, “If you do this, you will be punished in this way, this way, or this way.” The problem is, the Correspondents’ Association hasn’t gotten to that point yet. And there needs to more solidarity among members of the Correspondents’ Association so that this stuff actually has a penalty associated with it.
MITCHELL: And it isn’t private pleading. This is the only way we can have any transparency, like follow-up questions in the briefing room, Kimberly.
ATKINS: It’s true, I mean, that’s the only way you can get it, is by asking the president. And what he has done is limited the amount of – the White House has limited the number of press briefings, the amount of availability the president has.
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