Jonathan Easley

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused reporters of putting national security at risk by publishing classified information. Revelations that former staff secretary Rob Porter received an interim security clearance despite an FBI investigation that turned up allegations of past spousal abuse has led to questions about who at the White House is handling sensitive information.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparred with reporters during her Dec 11 briefing over errors made by media outlets in reports on President Donald Trump. Sanders disputed the notion that mistakes made by news outlets were “honest mistakes” during a heated exchange with CNN’s Jim Acosta.  "You cannot say it's an honest mistake when you're purposely putting out information you know is false," Sanders said. Sanders and Acosta talked over one another during the exchange. “I’m not finished,” she responded when reporter Brian Karem tried to cut in.

CNN accused President Donald Trump of being an online bully after the president tweeted an attack against anchor Don Lemon, calling him the “dumbest man on television.” “In a world where bullies torment kids on social media to devastating effect on a regular basis with insults and name-calling, it is sad to see our president engaging in the very same behavior himself,” a CNN spokesperson said. “Leaders should lead by example.”
 

Conservative media outlets have suffered through a tumultuous few weeks punctuated by infighting and public controversy, underscoring the difficulty some are having adjusting to the new levels of attention and scrutiny that comes with their elevated status in the age of President Trump.

The transition from the edges of the media to its center can be difficult. Conservative media’s mainstream peers have greeted them with suspicion and hostility, often eager to highlight the newcomers’ stumbles or question their legitimacy. In interviews with nearly a dozen key figures in conservative media, right-leaning reporters and editors spoke about their relative youth and inexperience and the need to professionalize and move on from the sensationalism that initially helped them attract readers. They see their challenge as one that mirrors what the Republican Party as a whole is experiencing, as it makes the transition from being the opposition party to the party in power.

Foreign reporters challenged President Donald Trump to address his wiretapping accusation and attacks on the media at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A German reporter asked President Trump whether he regrets claiming that former President Barack Obama bugged Trump Tower during the presidential campaign, provoking Trump to joke about reports that the National Security Agency had once monitored Merkel’s phone under Obama. “As far as wiretapping, I guess by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” President Trump said with a grin.

President Trump beat back questions about why the White House had accused Britain’s intelligence agency of having helped Obama surveil Trump Tower, saying press secretary Sean Spicer had merely read aloud a report from a Fox News legal analyst. “We said nothing. All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I did not make an opinion on it,” President Trump said. “That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. So you should not be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that there is a “big difference” between WikiLeaks publishing Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s hacked e-mails and the site's recent release of classified CIA information. During the presidential campaign, President Donald Trump praised WikiLeaks and urged the group to continue publishing Podesta’s hacked e-mails, which US intelligence agencies believe were obtained by Russian-backed hackers. Spicer was asked if President Trump is still a fan of WikiLeaks, a day after the group published a massive trove of documents pertaining to the CIA’s hacking programs. “There is a big difference between disclosing John Podesta’s Gmail accounts and the back-and-forth about his undermining of Hillary Clinton and his thoughts on her on a personal level, and of leaking classified information,” Spicer said.

President Donald Trump lashed out at the media over Twitter on March 7, calling reports of infighting among his aides “fake news.” The president wrote, "Don't let the FAKE NEWS tell you that there is big infighting in the Trump Admin. We are getting along great, and getting major things done!" President Trump is also said to have gone on a tirade over the weekend, blaming his staff for attorney general Jeff Sessions decision to recuse himself from campaign-related investigations.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer defended the administration’s unconventional briefing methods at an off-camera gaggle with reporters who expressed frustration over a lack of access to the president. Rather than hold a traditional televised Q&A with reporters, Spicer briefed the media off-camera at the White House. That angered some in the press, who also expressed frustration that there had been no sightings of the president on a day when he had signed a highly anticipated executive order.

“Will we be hearing from the president this week since we didn’t today?” one reporter asked. “I’m sure at some point we’ll do something ... a photo spray,” Spicer responded. “We have a pretty good track record of making the president available to folks.” “It’s unusual,” the reporter shot back. “Everything is closed. Normally they have a photo spray or something,” American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan said. “Don’t give me this ‘normally we do,’” Spicer shot back. “I made it very clear at the beginning of this April that we’d have some things on camera, some things off. Last week, the president traveled two days, he had the [speech before the] joint session [of Congress]. We briefed every day.” "It’s not about us; it’s about the American public seeing their president,” Ryan responded.

President Donald Trump lashed out at The New York Times in an interview with Breitbart News, saying that he can handle rough treatment from the media but that the nation’s largest newspaper is out to sink him at any cost. “It’s intent. It’s also intent. If you read The New York Times, if you read The New York Times, it’s — the intent is so evil and so bad,” Trump told Breitbart’s Washington political editor, Matthew Boyle, in a sit-down interview in the Oval Office. “The stories are wrong in many cases, but it’s the overall intent.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) says he won’t open an investigation into President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, citing executive privilege. But the committee will investigate who leaked the story that led to Flynn’s resignation and why Trump's national security adviser was being recorded.

Democrats are demanding an investigation into the matter, which ties into their suspicions about the Trump administration’s alleged close ties to Moscow. But House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said his committee will not investigate Flynn, and Nunes, the Intelligence chairman, followed suit. Chairman Nunes said he is more concerned “that you have an American citizen who had his phone calls recorded.” Chairman Nunes will investigate how the story was exposed, he said.