Routine media access to the White House could be a thing of the past under Donald Trump's presidency, with top officials of the incoming administration saying they're exploring other options nearby.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence cast the idea as a response to increased interest in the new administration, saying they're "giving some consideration to finding a larger venue on the 18 acres in the White House complex to accommodate the extraordinary interest."
Speaking on CBS' Face the Nation, Pence said the move is intended to reflect the Trump administration's "commitment to transparency, to free and independent press."
The news, first reported on Sunday by Esquire Magazine, raised alarms that it was just the opposite - an end to the longstanding tradition of daily press briefings in the White House, a reflection of Trump's contentious relationship with the news media.
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More than 250 journalists packed Trump Tower last week for the celebrity businessman's first full-fledged news conference since July, billed as a forum to discuss his separation from his business but which quickly turned into a wide-ranging free-for-all about US intelligence, Russian hacking and, eventually, some of Trump's policy plans after he takes office on January 20.
The president-elect's chief of staff, Reince Priebus, echoed Pence's remarks, saying the news conference demonstrated the need for more space since the briefing room accommodates only about 50 people.
"If we have more people involved instead of less people involved, wouldn't that be a good thing?" Priebus said on ABC's This Week. He mentioned the idea of moving press conferences to the Executive Office Building next door to the White House. They're currently held in the White House's West Wing, which houses offices for White House staff.
Following a two-hour meeting with incoming Trump press secretary Sean Spicer on the matter, White House Correspondents' Association President Jeff Mason said he made clear "the WHCA would view it as unacceptable if the incoming administration sought to move White House reporters out of the press work space behind the press briefing room." Access in the West Wing to senior administration officials, including the press secretary, is critical to transparency, Mason said.
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