Spicer: White House Briefing Move Still On Table

Trump transition team spokesman Sean Spicer, who is the incoming White House spokesman, says at least the first White House briefing will be in the current White House briefing room (familiar to all from West Wing), but that whether the second will be, too, remains to be seen.

President-elect Donald Trump had suggested the press conferences might move to make room for reporters from more outlets and Spicer confirmed that was a possibility on a press call Wednesday (Jan. 18).

"At least for the first one, we will have it in the briefing room," said Spicer. He said there was a massive demand to cover Trump, both at Trump tower, where space was "maxed out." As to the outcry about the possible move of the White House briefing room, he said they were just trying to relieve the cramped quarters.

A reporter cited Trump's apparent mixed signals on the move, which Spicer explained was instead him saying: "fine, if they don't want to do it, if they don't want more folks, we can cram them into that little space."

Spicer said he would see what day two looks like in terms of making any change. "We try to accommodate the press corps and get a lot more people to be able to cover it because there is that enormous interest in covering him."

Spicer said they would look at whether it makes sense to go to a room that could accommodate mroe people, but that as it is" "I't going to be tight quarters on Monday, I can assure you that."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.