A Daily Caller White House correspondent raised her hand at press briefings for an entire year under the Biden administration — and was called on just three times.
Reagan Reese, who covered the Biden-Harris White House, revealed this week that then-press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ignored conservative reporters sitting in the back rows while sticking to friendly mainstream outlets in the front.
Twice when Reese finally got called on, she wasn’t even in her assigned back-corner seat. A snowstorm had kept most reporters home, so she moved to an empty fourth-row chair.
“TO THIS DAY, I’M SURE JEAN-PIERRE CALLED ON ME ONLY BECAUSE SHE RAN OUT OF PEOPLE TO CALL ON.”
The Biden White House briefing room had far fewer credentialed conservative outlets than under Trump. Right-of-center outlets included the Washington Examiner, Newsmax, the New York Post, One America News, the Daily Mail, Fox Business, the Wall Street Journal, and Fox News.
Only Fox and the Wall Street Journal were called on with any regularity. Jean-Pierre rarely looked past the third or fourth row.
James Rosen, then Newsmax’s correspondent, was one of the few bold enough to call out the bias. He’d shout follow-up questions from the back or interject to get her attention.
One memorable exchange came before Biden dropped out of the 2024 race. Then-White House Correspondents Association President Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News asked Jean-Pierre whether Biden was committed to staying in and invited him to come tell reporters himself.
“If he’s awake,” Rosen shouted from the back.
“That’s inappropriate,” O’Donnell snapped. Jean-Pierre echoed her, scolding Rosen with the WHCA president’s backing.
But the comment wasn’t inappropriate. Reports had surfaced days earlier that Biden was only dependable between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. A day after the exchange, another report said Biden told more than 20 Democratic governors he needed more sleep and they should stop scheduling events after 8 p.m.
Under Biden, conservative reporters were systematically isolated. In one instance, the White House decided a Biden speech would be open only to select media. The Daily Caller, the New York Post, and Fox News Radio were removed from the room.
The New York Post’s Steven Nelson refused to leave, pointing out there was plenty of space for everyone.
The administration also rolled out new rules restricting which journalists could enter the briefing room and attend presidential events. When the White House revoked press credentials for 442 reporters, the White House Correspondents’ Association took an “officially noncommittal stance,” the Washington Post reported.
Charlie Spiering, now of the Daily Mail, recently described what it was like dealing with a hostile administration and the WHCA as Breitbart’s White House correspondent.
It took a year of requesting daily passes before the Obama White House granted him a permanent one. The WHCA then offered Breitbart only limited chances to earn a permanent spot in the pool. When the Senate Daily Press Gallery pulled Breitbart’s congressional credentials, the WHCA eventually revoked the outlet’s membership.
Happy to give more context, as people keep asking me about it. I was the White House reporter for Breitbart News under the Obama admin, Trump 1.0, and Biden.
Team Obama gave me my first hard pass after about a year of requesting daily passes. WHCA welcomed us and added me to the…
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) September 23, 2026
Reese brought up these stories after a tense week at the White House. President Trump banned Politico, MS NOW, and CNN from the White House on Friday. Their badges stopped working.
In solidarity, other TV networks banded together, refusing to air Trump’s remarks or participate in the press pool. As Reese sat in the briefing room Monday, reporters murmured in disbelief. CNN’s tent sat dark and empty. Some correspondents did live hits lamenting that their own badges still worked while those of their Politico, MS NOW, and CNN colleagues didn’t.
Reese was clear: she doesn’t believe the government — no matter the administration — should decide who gets to cover it.
But she has a hard time feeling bad for colleagues at those outlets.
“THEY’VE NEVER REALLY BEEN THERE FOR THOSE OF US WHO AREN’T THEM.”
Reese is skeptical that if a Democratic administration pulls the same stunt someday, they’d be there for her or any conservative colleagues. She thinks we’ve already tested that.
She was practically invisible to WHCA colleagues until the Trump administration started calling on her in briefings.
The First Amendment doesn’t come with a membership card. The question is whether mainstream reporters will remember that the next time it’s a conservative getting shown the door.
