Trump's Chief of Staff Hints at Press Briefing Change; Formerly Conjoined Twins Going Home
COSTELLO: Oh, the winds of change are blowing in Washington and they are blowing hard. The White House Press Corps is not immune. Here's President-elect Trump's chief of staff, Reince Priebus, suggesting that something could shift when it comes to daily press briefings and more.</s>REINCE PRIEBUS, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The point of all of this conversation is that the traditions, while some of them are great, I think it's time to revisit a lot of these things that have been done in the White House and I can assure you that change is going to happen.</s>COSTELLO: Change is going to happen. So let's talk about that. With me now, CNN national correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux, and Bill Carter, CNN media analyst. Welcome to both of you. So, Suzanne, I want to -- I want to start with you because you spent 10 years as a White House correspondent and Reince Priebus is talking about these press briefings with the president's spokesman. So just tell our viewers what those press briefings are meant to be for. Who they benefit?</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure. And these changes, Carol, because what Reince Priebus is talking about, it's not actually up to the Obama administration in terms of how this goes, but, you know, it's set in a way so that you have assigned seats for each of the correspondents for the networks. And I remember that CNN used to be in the second row behind Helen Thomas. And really, the first row is the coveted row, where you really get a chance up close to see the press secretary. These kinds of decisions are made by the White House Press Association -- the Press Corps Association. And that is because under Democrats and Republicans really you don't want the administration to have the influence where say they don't like a question that you ask, they kick you to the back of the press room and you are never heard from again. That is kind of -- the kind of image and influence that you don't want to have as a part of this, the news gathering. And so that is really something that's determined independently of the White House and it's been that way from the very beginning.</s>COSTELLO: OK. So there's that. But I want to specifically focus on what these press briefings are for. Will there be fewer of them? Brian Stelter has joined us. Welcome, Brian. He's also our CNN media analyst and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES." So, Brian, will there be fewer press briefings?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Sure seems like Reince Priebus and those aides would like to reconsider everything. I was at the White House yesterday when this news came out. There's a lot of concern both among actually reporters, as Suzanne was describing, also from Obama aides. Now it's easy on the way out to say how important it is to have the press there, but Josh Earnest, the outgoing White House press secretary, was very clear. He said he's concerned as an American about the prospect of not having daily briefings. I think it's important, Carol, not to get ahead of this. We don't know exactly what the incoming Trump administration is planning or thinking on this count. Certainly the most likely choice for press secretary, Sean Spicer, is well-known among the press corps. Everybody, you know, who covers the Trump administration knows Sean Spicer. So there is already a sign that they will perhaps be bringing in an expert to be doing the briefings. But there's a lot of question marks.</s>COSTELLO: Here's the thing. So a lot of question marks. And I want to bring it back to my original question. I'll pose this to you, Bill. So these press briefings are not just for the whiny press.</s>BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: No. They're --</s>COSTELLO: They are to inform the American public of what's going on.</s>CARTER: The press is representing us. This is democracy. They are representing us. It's not like they are new. They go back to, like, Grover Cleveland. People have always done them. I think there's a little trolling going on here. I mean, the press has been a target for this guy for a long time. They -- he's called us scum and the, you know, lowest form of life, whatever, and there's not a lot of respect for the press. I think there's a lot of I think trying to put apprehension in the relationship. What's he going to do? It can't be that he's going to close off the press entirely, I don't think. That will cause an even greater rift. But I do think he wants to keep the press nervous and on their toes and this is a way of saying it's going to change, it's not going to be like it used to be, et cetera.</s>COSTELLO: But, well, Suzanne, that's what I was getting at. You know, you think of the press on their toes and makes us nervous or anything, but at the end of the day, we share information with the public, we hold truth to power, right? And that's what these press briefings are all about.</s>MALVEAUX: Well, absolutely. But to the point about the transition here and how it's done, it's been done in many different ways. I mean, it was under President Clinton and Bush that we actually had what was called an off-camera gaggle. We would all go to the press secretary's office, and 40 of us would cram to his office with our tape recorders to get the news of the day early in the day, so you would have something to work with throughout the day, then you would have an on-camera briefing afterwards. So it was really two parts. The Obama administration decided to eliminate that and that's why in some ways, you see a press briefing on camera that lasts for more than an hour, sometimes an hour and a half on some days. Josh Earnest making a point, however, to answer or at least try to answer all the reporters' questions that are in that room. And Carol, I mean, just think about it, the White House press briefing room used to be a swimming pool under Roosevelt and it was the emergence of TV cameras that they said look, there needs to be a work space for the press there in the West Wing, and that is how that came about. But it was Laura Bush who actually came and looked at it and said gosh, this is a mess, decided to renovate it so temporarily we were working out of another space across the street from the White House, and President Bush joked and said welcome back in. So there really is -- there's nothing that's guaranteed here. It is something that is very fluid and changes from administration to administration.</s>COSTELLO: So why couldn't you, Brian, just have your press briefing via Twitter?</s>STELTER: I have a feeling that Donald Trump might want to try that some days. Supposed to have a press conference today. Instead he's tweeting. The answer is when you have a briefing, when you are in front of a lot of reporters, it actually is good for both sides. Earnest was making the point that when he knows he has to face a bunch of reporters, all of whom have different questions, it actually creates more pressure on the administration to have real answers or at least try to come up with answers, at least try to come up with explanations. So it creates pressure that is good for both sides. Good for the public and good for the administration. Right now, in that briefing room, we have everybody from Breitbart to BuzzFeed to CNN. And that kind of diversity is also a good thing to hear lots of kinds of questions, including adversarial questions.</s>COSTELLO: Absolutely. So, Bill, I want you to look into your crystal ball.</s>CARTER: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: What do you think is going to happen?</s>CARTER: I think it will be really fractious. I think they may try to do things that way with a little bit of Twitter. I'm not sure you can answer every question in 140 characters. Probably a little more complicated than that, sometimes. I do think there will be an attempt to change it. There will be changes around the edges. But I've got to believe there will be some sort of confrontational question and answer period. There's too much information the White House has to give out.</s>COSTELLO: We'll see. Bill, Brian, Suzanne, thanks to all of you. I'll be right -- we'll be right back.