White House Correspondents Discuss White House Coverage.
CUOMO: Everybody's so busy when they cover the White House that it was just easier for me to come down here and get a group of them together so we could talk about that because these are familiar faces to you at home. You're watching coverage of the president. How do they think we're doing and where do they think where this is all headed? So, joining me now is Francesca Chambers, Kaitlan Collins and Brian Karem. Sorry for giving you my back here. Good to see you. It's good to see you. Good to see you. So, listen, you saw a little demonstration there why I can't do your job. I'd get kicked out in about two minutes and I never be invited back. I make Brian Karem seemed polite. But in terms of your sense, Francesca, I'll start with you, the state of play between the free press and the presidency, are we?</s>FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, DAILY MAIL WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're having White House press briefings now about once a week, and I think that's been pretty telling as this crisis has went down, we didn't see the White House press secretary out there. You had Kellyanne Conway on there tonight, but mostly speaking, we haven't seen senior advisors to the president out on television helping to manage with this crisis. So, I think that's number one. But number two, and I pressed on this yesterday in the White House press briefing with this Paul Manafort and a potential pardon, they are not ruling it out explicitly and even Rudy Giuliani, the president's attorney has said he's just saying don't do it right now while the special counsel's investigation is still going on. I also think that's really telling.</s>CUOMO: The basic argument is you only cover what's bad for the president and you don't say all the good things. So, you really not about the truth either?</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So I think a lot of this has to do with the president creating a lot of these problems for himself. Key point, Jeff Sessions today, Kellyanne Conway was saying more people should have covered the prison reform meeting that the president had with Jeff Sessions, Jared Kushner, and a few other advisers today at the White House. But it's the president's comment in that interview where he's going after Jeff Sessions, saying that he's never taken control of the Justice Department, that he's easy on Democrats, and that he only picked him because he was a loyal supporter during the campaign, that's why we're raising questions about whether or not the president is going to fire Jeff Sessions, because he's making it pretty clear he wants to fire Jeff Sessions. That's why no one is talking about the prison reform meeting, which we would love to talk about because that's actually a pretty big issue, and the Department of Justice and Jeff Sessions really disagree with Jared Kushner and others in the White House. It's a big thing.</s>CUOMO: And we follow. We follow power. And that's not a criticism. If he talked about it more, we would too. It's the battle over the truth. Who's winning?</s>BRIAN KAREM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, and here's you know, you asked where we're going. Here's where we're going. They're in a bunker mentality. We have a weekly daily press briefing. You saw with Kellyanne Conway what we face every day in that White House. For example, she says we don't want to cover anything. Well, then make yourself available to answer questions about those things. You set up the problems, as you say, Kaitlin, and we have to deal with the answers, and then you come after us. Now, instead of answering questions, Kellyanne tried to flip it and make you answer her questions. We're not there for that. She says we don't hold him up, that we put him down. We're not there for that. They're there to put a spin on it, we're there to find out what's really going on. And it's impossible to do that when you're dealing with an administration, Chris, that on any given day, won't return a phone call, won't return an e-mail, will not show up in the West Wing, except in their offices and then get angry when you show up to ask to questions about what the president is doing.</s>CUOMO: I gave her so much of an opportunity tonight that I ate all your time. This is what I want get though from each of you. Do you think from this point going forward, things get better or worse in terms of the dynamic in this country between the press and power?</s>CHAMBERS: Well, I think that's up to the White House. And I did want to make a point, as you were saying, by the way, Kaitlan, on prison reform, that's not a meeting that was open to us today.</s>CUOMO: Fair point.</s>CHAMBERS: So, that's not something that we could have attended and covered if we --</s>CUOMO: But if he talks about it a lot instead of other things, we would be able to cover it.</s>CHAMBERS: Absolutely. And we're just covering what he's tweeting about because that's what he's talking about.</s>CUOMO: Right. Better or worse.</s>COLLINS: I actually think it's a small group of people that have a strong dislike for the media. I think a lot of this country realizes that the media is important. And I speak with a lot of people. I'm from Alabama. When I go home, I think a lot of people are really thankful for what we do and that we're in there covering the White House. And you see that in your feedback from viewers and stuff. I think a lot of people are really grateful for what the media does, and that we're there telling them. We're not there to criticize the president or make him look bad. We're there to say what the taxpayer funded people in the White House are doing so the American people who are at work every day how what they're doing and how that's affecting their lives.</s>CUOMO: Strong point.</s>KAREM: Appearance or reality? What do you want to deal with? If you want to deal with reality, I'll take you to Tuesday night in Charleston, West Virginia, at a rally. Every time he says CNN, every time he says MSNBC, NBC, he screams "fake news" and everybody cheers. And then individually, they come over and want to talk to you and ask you questions. Where do I think it's going better or worse? I actually think -- this will sound awful weird, Chris, but President Trump has made our job, as highlighted our jobs, has reinvigorated the press corps. I think we were asleep for many years and I think it gets better because I think we are getting better at doing our job. It's starting to remind me of the press room when I first went there in '85 and ''86 and watched Helen Thomas walk up and bang on the door and say, you got to come out and talk to us and speaks. And now, you have younger reporters and some of us older farts who are doing it again. So, I'm encouraged.</s>CUOMO: I think it's a strong point. Let's the courage and I'm big fans of all of you. You're doing a job that matters very much and I'm reaping the benefits of it because I get to make sense of it at night. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right? We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, there's something that slipped out last night in all the fog of legalities that should matter more than anything else and it came from the president, next.