Press have long struggled to gain access to Joe Biden, a president who largely steers clear of sit-down interviews and unexpected press time. But new rules from the administration will further hamper access by enacting stricter regulations for reporters to obtain White House “hard passes.” And if reporters don’t act in a manner that the White House considers “professional,” they could be shown the door.
Compared to a temporary day pass, a hard pass is generally issued for one year and is subject to annual renewal. It allows journalists more regular access White House grounds.
Reporters who want a White House hard pass must obtain “accreditation by a press gallery in either the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, or Supreme Court,” the White House said in May.
Congressional accreditation is a process which conservative media outlets have found tedious and fraught with roadblocks. The congressional galleries are governed by boards comprised of legacy media reporters. And the Supreme Court has a limited number of hard-pass holders (only 25 in the past term).
Those new rules were a result of communications between the White House and the White House Correspondents’ Association, The Daily Caller reported in May 2023. And the Correspondents’ Association’s officers for 2023-2024 are comprised of legacy media outlet reporters: Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News, Eugene Daniels of Politico, Weijia Jiang of CBS, and Sara Cook of CBS.
The Correspondents’ Association decides seat rotations in the White House press briefing room, and since the room is small and some outlets are granted access only on a rotating basis, certain outlets don’t get regular access to the room. Even when they do, they are not guaranteed they will be called on by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
For reporters like The Daily Signal’s Fred Lucas, who has covered the White House for the past 14 years, the new rules mean he won’t be able to have a White House hard pass until he gets accredited by a congressional or the Supreme Court press gallery—effectively booting him from the briefing room for an undefinable period of time.
“Under the new policy, there is zero transparency from the White House as to how many journalists are losing their hard passes,” Lucas said. “Moreover, the administration has never articulated a justification for purging media they deem non-compliant.”
The White House did not immediately clarify to The Daily Signal how many reporters are losing their hard passes.
And it’s unclear how long that congressional accreditation process will take for reporters like Lucas. To some, it’s clear that conservative or right-leaning outlets face an uphill battle fighting for credentials.
A senior GOP aide who spoke on condition of anonymity emphasized to The Daily Signal: “It’s pretty obvious that conservative media outlets are held to different credentialing standards on the Hill.”
“Here’s why,” the aide explained. “‘Boards’ made up of leftist and mainstream media outlets control who gets credentialed or not. These boards vote on who gets credentialed or not. They don’t always follow the standards that they are supposed to follow. No one seems to know the actual rules for credentialing.”
The senior GOP aide added: “It’s pretty awful and won’t change until there is more transparency throughout the credentialing process and conservative outlets are guaranteed a seat at the credentialing table.”