Press Pool Pandemonium

On Monday morning, dozens of White House Correspondents’ Association members gathered for a virtual meeting to address an urgent issue. Eugene Daniels, the WHCA president, opened with an acknowledgment of the uncomfortable truth: the White House has seized control of the press pool, sidelining the association and leaving it in a precarious position. Daniels assured members that the board was doing everything possible to navigate the crisis. But the underlying frustration was impossible to ignore.

“There were a lot of pointed questions,” one person familiar with the contentious meeting told me. “You could tell there was a lot of frustration with Eugene and the board.”

Daniels is well-liked in Washington, but his leadership at the WHCA is now facing scrutiny. Since Donald Trump blocked the Associated Press from official events and took control of the press pool—banning both AP and HuffPost from their rotations—some members have criticized the WHCA for its tepid response. While Daniels has released forceful statements, many members want the organization—which is to a large degree hamstrung by a collective action problem—to respond more aggressively. That frustration boiled over in the meeting.

The first question Daniels faced was from The Washington Examiner’s Christian Datoc: Would Daniels serve out his full term as WHCA president now that he was leaving his correspondent role at POLITICO for an MSNBC hosting gig? It was likely not the opening question that Daniels had hoped for, given that it put his future in the position under scrutiny. Nevertheless, Daniels explained that he would continue covering the White House at MSNBC and that he had no intention of stepping down.