WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
600 NEW HAMPSHIRE AVE. NW, SUITE 800
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20037

Kellyanne Conway
Campaign Manager
Donald Trump Campaign

October 18, 2016

Dear Kellyanne:

The White House Correspondents’ Association expresses its profound concern and consternation at the Trump campaign’s failure to establish a “protective pool” at this late date on the political calendar and urges you to remedy the situation without delay for the remainder of the 2016 campaign.

The implementation of a protective pool of journalists has a decades-long, bipartisan precedent, anchored to the principles of the First Amendment. In 2008, Barack Obama and John McCain began their protective pools in June and July respectively, each prior to their nominating conventions. Mitt Romney began his protective pool in August 2012. George W. Bush began his protective pool in September 2000.

Establishing a protective pool now will ease the process of forming one on Nov. 9 if Mr. Trump wins on Election Day. The WHCA expects the new president-elect to have a protective pool immediately, just like the president does, and we are set to take over coordination of the pooling process from the campaign press corps directly after the election. Not having a protective pool accompany the president-elect would be a particularly serious breach of historical precedent and First Amendment responsibilities. It would prompt consistent and public criticism from the White House press corps, represented by the WHCA board. We urge you to take steps now to ensure that a protective pool is put in place.

Events on the campaign trail underscore our concerns about the lack of a protective pool. In recent weeks, the press corps covering Mr. Trump was stranded in New York after the candidate and reporters traveled on separate aircraft from separate airports to an event in New Hampshire. This resulted in the press corps missing all but the final three minutes of the candidate’s address at a rally there. Last month, the candidate sought to have photographers and videographers follow him on a tour of his new hotel in Washington. The candidate’s aides physically restrained the designated television pool producer from moving with the television crew and failed to tell the print and wire poolers that the pool movement was taking place. This is unacceptable.

It was a step in the right direction to hear the campaign publicly tout a decision to increase access to the candidate beginning on Sept. 19. However that decision was apparently reversed by the end of the day. Moreover, the campaign’s stated rationale for not implementing a protective pool — that reporters could not be accommodated on the candidate’s plane — proved false after Mr. Trump flew without a pool on a backup plane that could have accommodated the press.

The campaign has indicated its desire to provide as much transparency and access to the press as possible. There is a simple solution: establish a protective pool and allow the press pool to travel on the candidate’s plane like every major party nominee in recent memory, including the current Democratic nominee.

Our concerns about transparency, access, and the timely flow of information from the presidential candidates are not limited to the Trump campaign. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton also has failed to implement a protective pool. We respectfully submit, however, that the Trump campaign is lagging behind the level of press access provided by its Democratic counterpart. We will continue to advocate for the public’s interest in full transparency from both campaigns and during the post-election transition going forward.

Thank you for your prompt attention to these concerns. Please let us know if we can help with any additional information.

Respectfully,

The White House Correspondents’ Association Jeff Mason, President
Margaret Talev, Vice President
Olivier Knox, Vice President-elect


WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
600 NEW HAMPSHIRE AVE. NW, SUITE 800
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20037

Jennifer Palmieri
Communications Director
Hillary for America

October 18, 2016

Dear Jennifer:

The White House Correspondents' Association expresses its profound concern and consternation at the Clinton campaign’s failure to establish a “protective pool” at this late date on the political calendar and urges you to remedy the situation without delay for the remainder of the 2016 campaign.

The implementation of a protective pool of journalists has a decades-long, bipartisan precedent, anchored securely to the principles of the First Amendment. In 2008, Barack Obama and John McCain began their protective pools in June and July respectively, each prior to their nominating conventions. Mitt Romney began his protective pool in August 2012. George W. Bush began his protective pool in September 2000.

Establishing a protective pool now will ease the process of forming one on Nov. 9 if Secretary Clinton wins on Election Day. The WHCA expects the new president-elect to have a protective pool immediately, just like the president does, and we are set to take over coordination of the pooling process from the campaign press corps directly after the election. Not having a protective pool accompany the president-elect would be a particularly serious breach of historical precedent and First Amendment responsibilities. It would prompt consistent and public criticism from the White House press corps, represented by the WHCA board. We urge you to take steps now to ensure that a protective pool is put in place.

The events of Sunday, Sept. 11 underline the purpose and importance of a protective pool arrangement. Reporters covering Secretary Clinton’s attendance at the 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York were not permitted to observe her departure from the event and were not notified that she had left. That failure of transparency about Secretary Clinton’s whereabouts and condition created an unnecessary panic about her health situation that dominated the news cycle for days. Having a protective pool would have remedied the kind of chaos and speculation that resulted from those events, which did not serve the public’s interest.

Our concerns about transparency, access, and the timely flow of information from the presidential candidates are not limited to the Clinton campaign. Republican nominee Donald Trump also has failed to implement a protective pool, in addition to declining to accommodate press on his aircraft. We recognize that Secretary Clinton, by contrast, has a campaign plane that accommodates traveling press. That does not assuage our concerns about the lack of a protective pool, however. We urge the Clinton campaign not to use the Republican nominee’s posture on transparency and press access as the bar against which it measures itself. We will continue to advocate for the public’s interest in full transparency from both campaigns and during the post-election transition going forward.

Thank you for your prompt attention to these concerns. Please let us know if we can help with any additional information.

Respectfully,

The White House Correspondents’ Association Jeff Mason, President
Margaret Talev, Vice President
Olivier Knox, Vice President-elect