Ari Fleischer advises Stephanie Grisham to return to the old days of 'serious' press briefings
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer argues that the daily briefings should return but without TV cameras.
Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Wednesday that Stephanie Grisham should kick off her tenure by resuming White House press briefings, but with no television cameras.
Grisham, who has served as Melania Trump’s spokeswoman since 2017, was named to replace Sarah Sanders as White House press secretary Tuesday.
Sanders drew criticism from the White House press corps for not holding daily press briefings for the last several months of her tenure.
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Fleischer, responding on "Outnumbered," said his top piece of advice for Grisham would be to bring back the briefing, but in a different format.
"The briefing should not be a red-hot TV show, the briefing should be a briefing. That way she can open the job with a little more rapport with the reporters," he said, adding that many print reporters would welcome being away from the cameras.
Fleischer, a Fox News contributor who served as White House press secretary under George W. Bush, lamented that some reporters have turned the briefing into a "game of gotcha." He said off-camera briefings were routine as recently as the Clinton administration.
"The briefing has become a TV show. It is no longer a serious briefing. It's game of gotcha, everybody knows it and that's why people watch it. It's not designed to be watched, it's designed to fill the press in and answer the press' questions," he argued.
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