“They give you a list, guys,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said at Tuesday’s White House press briefing.
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White House staff preselect which reporters to call on at press briefings — a common practice that President Donald Trump made an issue of when he accused his predecessor, Joe Biden, of getting questions in advance.
Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged he had a set of names to call when he hosted the White House press briefing on Tuesday. “They give you a list, guys,” he told reporters as they raised their hands, proceeding to call on the National Review.
Blanche appeared to use the list when he called on other right-wing outlets, including the Daily Caller and the New York Post. He took other questions spontaneously.
When Biden was president, Trump repeatedly accused him of answering planted questions. At multiple news conferences Biden acknowledged he had a “list of 10 people that I’m supposed to call on,” but the White House Correspondents’ Association and independent outlets such as the Associated Press said reporters did not provide questions in advance.
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“Biden calls on a specific reporter, gets a question, then reads the answer off a card,” Trump wrote online in 2023. “In other words, he knows the question, then reads the answer. What is going on here?”
Former GOP co-chair Lara Trump called Biden’s practice “embarrassing” and “crazy” in a 2021 Fox News interview.
Vice President JD Vance chose reporters from a printed seating chart when he hosted the White House press briefing on Sept. 3. At a Treasury Department news conference in August, Secretary Scott Bessent appeared to read off the names of specific reporters, including one person who seemed to be absent because she never answered. He then called on someone else.
Riley Beggin contributed reporting.
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