White House Correspondents' Association slams admin letter on Hur coverage as 'misdirected,' 'inappropriate'
The White House Correspondents’ Association said it "will not serve as a repository for the government’s views" after receiving a letter critical of Hur report coverage.
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) ripped White House Counsel’s Office spokesman Ian Sams' letter Thursday for complaining member organizations were "misreporting" the Hur report.
The White House has recently tried to discredit claims in Special Counsel Robert Hur's report that have renewed questions about President Biden's mental acuity. Sams praised the report clearing Biden of any wrongdoing related to his handling of classified documents, but offered sharp criticism of Hur's description of the president as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Sams delivered outright criticism of the WHCA on Tuesday, in a letter addressed to association President Kelly O’Donnell and members of the association, claiming outlets have "reported striking inaccuracies" that gave a misleading portrayal of Hur's conclusions. He charged that reporters themselves in the White House briefing room have asked questions including "false content or are based on false premises."
"When significant errors occur in coverage, such as essentially misstating the findings and conclusions of a federal investigation of the sitting President, it is critical that they be addressed," he wrote.
In the letter, which he shared on X, he also listed examples of headlines and stories he argued "wrongly asserted that the report found that the President willfully retained and disclosed classified material."
O’Donnell responded with a letter of her own, calling Sams' letter "misdirected" and wrote, "It is inappropriate for the White House to utilize internal pool distribution channels, primarily for logistics and the rapid sharing of need-to-know information, to disseminate generalized critiques of news coverage. We will not distribute them going forward."
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"As a non-profit organization that advocates for its members in their efforts to cover the presidency, the WHCA does not, cannot and will not serve as a repository for the government’s views of what’s in the news," O’Donnell wrote. "The White House has far reach to make its positions known on the Hur report or any other matter."
O’Donnell, the senior White House correspondent for NBC News, also argued the White House is able to contact individual reporters or outlets directly if they have issues with their reporting and that "In its 110-year history, our association has never controlled or policed the journalism that is published or broadcast by our members or their employer."
O’Donnell wrote, "The WHCA welcomes—and its members surely seek— further opportunities to ask questions of the president, the White House counsel, or the president’s personal attorney on this matter."
Sams grew flustered last week when a reporter took issue with his credentials and asked for the White House counsel to take over because he had allegedly given factually incorrect information. Sams asked, "Should I be offended by that?" He stammered in surprise, "What? I mean, come on."