White House press secretary keeps going on Fox News instead of holding press briefings

White House press secretary and communications director Stephanie Grisham has never held a press conference in the 133 days she has been in her position.

The official press conference drought is now 245 days, a streak that began under Grisham’s predecessor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sanders’ last press conference was in March.

When Grisham took over in July, she kept the trend going. Grisham justified the policy by telling Fox News that Trump canceled the opportunities for the press to question the administration because reporters “weren’t being good to his people.” She also complained that Sanders was frequently mocked in the job.

Grisham has confined her media appearances to Fox News, Fox Business, and One America News Network, the conspiracy-theory-friendly news outlet that touts itself as more right-wing than Fox.

Grisham has appeared at least 13 times on the Fox networks, where she has been greeted with softball questions instead of being confronted with serious questions on issues like impeachment and evidence of bribery and corruption.

In the safe space of Fox, Grisham has been able to make assertions about Trump that are unchallenged by the hosts.

“Undermining a president is dangerous,” Grisham told Fox on Monday, referring to the impeachment inquiry. “It does go against the Constitution, it does go against the American people.” None of the Fox hosts bothered to mention to Grisham that impeachment is laid out in the Constitution, written by the founders.

Without press briefings, Grisham has been able to avoid questions on Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ children, abortion access, the public souring on the economy, new evidence that Trump sexually assaulted a woman, and much more.

When the administration was being criticized, even by Republicans, for Trump’s decision to abandon Kurdish allies, Grisham turned to Fox to absolve Trump of blame.

During Grisham’s tenure, the briefing room has only been used for presentations by administration officials eager to promote Trump’s track record, including touting his anti-immigrant stances.

Grisham’s appearances on Fox are so frequent that she is on the network as often as Sanders, who parlayed her White House position into a job as a political commentator for the network. Since starting at Fox in early September, Sanders has appeared on Fox 13 times.

The difference between the two women is that Sanders is an employee of Fox while Grisham’s salary is being footed by American taxpayers.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.