By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
If I could, I would direct this brief message to the four people who served as press secretary during Donald Trump’s term as president.
They are, in order, Sean Spicer, Sara H. Sanders, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany. They all fluffed the job of briefing the press on issues relating to the presidency; indeed, Grisham didn’t conduct a single briefing before she quit to join the first lady’s staff. They should take heed of the manner that the current press flack, Jen Psaki, is doing her job on behalf of President Biden.
To be sure — and to be fair — the press gathered in front of Psaki has been fairly tame in tossing questions at her. There hasn’t been the in-your-face kind of interrogation we saw so often during the Trump years. Then again, the media haven’t been lied to as baldly and blatantly as they were for the previous four years.
Do you remember Sean Spicer’s initial press briefing? Here’s a reminder: He told the country that Donald Trump delivered his inaugural speech before the largest crowd in presidential inaugural history. Except that it wasn’t the largest crowd. It was a fraction of the size of either of President Barack Obama’s inaugural audiences.
So … there you go. Right out of the chute, the White House press flack for Donald Trump lied to the public, more than likely at the behest of Donald Trump his own self.
You will not hear, I am willing to wager, President Biden label the media as the “enemy of the people.” Donald Trump played the media like a fiddle before he was elected, then demonized them when they questioned him aggressively about the lies he continued to spew.
Joe Biden’s press secretary — Jen Psaki — is restoring the value of the White House press briefings.