Best-selling authors Stephen King and Don Winslow have gone trolling, pledging to donate $200,000 to charity if the White House holds a press briefing.
Winslow first announced his offer in a January 8 tweet:
“I will donate $75,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in your name if you will hold a one-hour press conference *this week* with the full White House Press Corps. What are you afraid of, Stephanie?” the author continued. “Best, Don Winslow,” he tweeted on Thursday.
Dear @PressSec,
It has been 301 days since The White House held a press briefing.
I will donate $75,000 to @StJude in your name if you will hold a one hour press conference *this week* with the full White House Press Corps.
What are you afraid of Stephanie?
Best,
Don Winslow— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) January 8, 2020
Winslow, the author of best-sellers such as 2017’s “The Force,” and 2010’s “Savages,” later upped his donation to $100,000 if the press conference were to be held.
For his part, “The Shinning,” author and regular Trump hater Stephen King echoed Winslow’s offer and made a $100,000 pledge of his own in a tweet where he screamed in all caps, “do YOUR DAMN JOB!”
I’ll also make it $100,000. That’s 200 K for charity. And all you have to do is YOUR DAMN JOB! https://t.co/AiiiJMly1w
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 9, 2020
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham did not respond directly to the two authors, but she did tell CNN’s Jake Tapper that if these writers have the spare cash, “why not just help children because it’s a good thing to do?”
“Donations to charity should never come with strings attached,” she added.
Winslow struck back with a comment to Deadline saying, “First, we both regularly donate to charity. Second, why do all Trump officials refuse to answer the most basic questions they are asked? Stop evading, Stephanie. Let’s try again: Why have you not held any White House press briefings for over 300 days? What are you afraid of?”
Winslow went on accusing the Trump administration of committing an “inexcusable perversion” over transparency.
“What the Trump administration is doing is inexcusable and a perversion of the transparency he promised when running for office,” Winslow said. “Every White House – Republican and Democratic – has held regular White House briefings, most every day. They don’t want to hold a briefing because they are scared to answer questions about Trump’s conduct and the conduct of his administration. … If Stephanie Grisham is too scared to answer questions from the press in the White House briefing room, then she should quit her job because her job is to answer those questions in the White House briefing room.”
There has not been a White House press briefing since May 11 of last year.
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