President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt has promised that the incoming administration will offer more press access than its predecessor. Leavitt made the comments in an interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Wednesday, in which she also criticized the current administration’s lack of transparency.
Leavitt said that President Biden has been absent from the public eye, spending a lot of time in Delaware, and that it’s a “dereliction of duty” on his part. She added that he owes it to the American people to speak directly to them.
Leavitt also mentioned that reporters in the White House briefing room have been frustrated with the lack of access and transparency from the Biden administration, and promised that this would change when President Trump returns to the Oval Office in January.
Trump’s administration has been criticized for a lack of transparency, both at home and abroad. The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) has been vocal about the lack of press access, including the recent Quad Summit when Biden spoke with leaders from Australia, India, and Japan at his Delaware home.
The WHCA called the lack of press access “unacceptable,” with president and Politico correspondent Eugene Daniels saying, “I can’t remember a time where this president has had a bilateral meeting on US soil and the press and therefore the American people were blocked from seeing it.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been confronted about the lack of transparency, with the WHCA slamming the administration for not holding briefings as default. Jean-Pierre has been criticized for snapping at a reporter who asked an off-topic question at the G-7 Summit in Italy.
When Leavitt assumes her role, she will be the youngest White House press secretary in history at 27 years old.