A pro-Trump network serving as the White House’s backup camera crew aired motorcade footage that the head of the White House press corps says put President Donald Trump at risk.
Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, made the accusation on X on Wednesday. The footage came from Real America’s Voice, the pro-Trump network the White House named as a backup television crew for the president’s trip to New York.
Conservative commentator Nick Sortor posted the video late Tuesday, thanking the network for showing “RAW footage of how difficult it is to keep President Trump safe.” The clip showed New York police vehicles escorting Trump through the city at night as he headed to the airport.
“For decades, the [White House Correspondents’ Association] has advised poolers not to air video of taillights because it’s a potential risk to the security of the motorcade,” Jiang wrote, quoting Sortor’s post.
The arrangement she is criticizing dates to Monday, when the major television networks refused to staff the White House pool in protest of the administration’s decision to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the building, Politico reported.
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place,” Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, who chairs the television pool, wrote in an email to pool subscribers obtained by Politico.
A White House guidance email sent Sunday night listed no television pool at all, according to Politico.
It named Hearst, which runs local stations around the country, as a secondary crew in Washington, and Real America’s Voice as the secondary crew for the New York trip.
Jiang had warned two days earlier that the substitute arrangement leaves every other newsroom with nothing, after a conservative writer said Real America’s Voice was providing the coverage.
“RAV is getting unilateral TV coverage for itself, but it does not have the ability to POOL or share it with anyone. In spaces like the Oval there’s not enough room for every outlet, which is what makes the pool necessary to ensure everyone (including RAV) has the footage,” Jiang wrote.
It was not immediately clear how widely Hearst or Real America’s Voice would distribute their footage, Politico reported.
The regular pool of five networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — takes turns covering the president and then shares the video with newsrooms that cannot fit in tight spaces like the Oval Office.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the administration Monday to restore their reporters’ access, the outlet reported. Secret Service officers had confiscated their credentials.
“All eyes are on Real America’s Voice today,” Real America’s Voice White House correspondent Taylor Mitchell noted on Monday.
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