GOOD MORNING DC: Transparency gone

#GoodMorningDC. President Joe Biden has his first press conference today, and only 30 journalists have been allowed to get in. 

Good Morning DC! Rise and shine this Thursday morning, President Joe Biden has his first press conference today, and only 30 journalists have been allowed to get in. 

In an interview with Voice of America, I said that I expect Biden to have an extremely easy ride today as there was no transparency on how the press attending were selected. The only information that has been shared is that all of the seats have been filled. But there was no sign-up sheet, everything has been done behind the scenes, without transparency. 

In another interview with the Foreign Press’s Tamsin Vidal, I talked about my career journey, international background, and experiences covering the White House. 

Read on: “Perhaps because I have experience of a dictatorship, censorship, and the fight for freedom, which ultimately won through, so whether it’s Trump or Biden, if restrictions are placed on the free press in any shape or form, you will always find me on the front line of defense of the first amendment.”

Christianity Daily published a story about The Pavlovic Today’s efforts for increased press access to the White House briefing room

Read on: McAteer pointed out the importance of “diversity of viewpoints” to democracy and that “America needs independent voices who do high-quality, original journalism” such as those of Martha Kumar and the likes “from both sides and center of the political spectrum.” She stressed that the new policy opens the “door to ‘pay to play’ journalism.”

The Christian Post published a story about a group of White House correspondents concerned about the Biden administration’s new policy of only allowing 80 reporters into the White House at a time. 

Read on: In addition to Karem and Harper, journalists Hugo Lovell, Jake Turx, Christian Datoc [of the Daily Caller], Andrew Feinberg, Tejinder Singh, Ksenija Pavlovic and Bricio Segovia are also signatories, according to a copy of the letter shared with CP.

Nuestro PAC, the largest Latino-centered and partisan Super PAC in the nation held a press conference yesterday in review of the 2020 Latino vote. 

Nuestro PAC’s main hopes are that by analyzing voters they can explore democratic and non-partisan, or “middle of the road,” voters who can be swayed. Even among these voters, the Super PAC emphasized the importance of not viewing Latinos as monolithic. 

For example, the GOP successfully appealed to many working-class Latinos as they promoted opening up businesses during the coronavirus shutdowns in order to put people back to work. Additionally, misinformation surrounding the democrats being tied to socialism also caused some damage. Chuck Rocha emphasized that though these instances hurt the democrats, they were not a cause for losing and underperforming in a place like Miami. 

After photos of overcrowding in South Florida were released, public health officials are voicing their concerns about an uptick in Covid-19 cases due to spring break crowds. 

“What concerns me is the footage of what’s happening [with] Spring Breakers, in people who are not continuing to implement prevention strategies,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during Wednesday’s Covid-19 press conference. 

The GOP is evenly split between Trump-First Republicans (43%) and Party-First Republicans (45%), a new poll revealed. “When asked whether they would vote for Trump or a different candidate in a GOP primary if it were held today, 60% of Republican respondents said they would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ back the former president.”

Trump sent a memo that he is endorsing David Shafer. “No one in Georgia fought harder for me than David! He NEVER gave up! He has my Complete and Total Endorsement for re-election,” Trump said. 

Thinking about getting back to work? You’re in luck if you live In DC. The Bowser Administration announced a new partnership with WeWork, a move that DC entrepreneurs can benefit from. 

Through the D.C. x WeWork partnership, local businesses and individuals will have access to reduced rates on WeWork office spaces if they are relocating to, returning to, or expanding in DC. Those reduced rates include:

• One month free trial of WeWork All Access for new members, plus 15% off after the trial per month for up to 12 months. WeWork All Access is a monthly subscription-based product that provides access to WeWork locations so that users can choose when and where to work; or
• WeWork Private office space with 2 months off of a 6-month commitment, or 3 months off of a 12-month commitment. 

Across the pond, Telegraph headlines the front-page story “Prince Harry’s transformation to Californian hippy is complete.” The Times writes about the vaccine passports as a condition of entering the pub, “Covid jab needed to enter pubs,” the front-page headline states. “EU will lose out from vaccine ban, warns PM,” headlines Independent digital.  

If you are looking for something to watch yet feel like you have seen it at all, check out Nine to Five, available on Hulu and Amazon Prime. It’s a  movie from the 90s with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton. 

And that’s a wrap for this Thursday morning, March 25, 2021. We are living the dream. Have some news you want to share? Email us all the deets. Good Morning DC will be back tomorrow to bring you the latest first.