White House Receives over 10k Submissions for ‘New Media Seat’ Credentials

WASHINGTON, DC–White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Friday that the Trump administration has received over 10,000 submissions requesting “new media seat” credentials in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.

Leavitt detailed the massive influx of submissions to a packed room of reporters during the briefing on Friday, days after she announced the seat would designated for members of “new media.”

“This White House has received more than 10,000 submissions from individuals across the country who are eager to join all of you–we might have to make this room a little bit bigger to do that–who want to participate in our new media seat at a future briefing,” she said.

During her first White House press briefing on Tuesday, Leavitt detailed that a seat traditionally reserved for her staff would be opened up to “new media voices who produce news-related content and whose outlet is not already represented by one of the seats in this room.”

“We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House,” she added.

Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle and Axios co-founder Mike Allen were the new media members in the seat for the inaugural briefing and received the first lines of questioning. Traditionally, the Associated Press gets the first questions in briefings, so the move marked a significant shift in the culture of the briefing room moving forward.

“As I said in my opening statement, Matt, it is a priority of this White House to honor the First Amendment,” Leavitt told Boyle in response to his question asking her to expand upon the White House’s effort to bring in more voices. “And it is a fact that Americans are consuming their news media from various different platforms, especially young people. And as the youngest press secretary in history, thanks to President Trump, I take great pride in opening up this room to new media voices to share the President’s message with as many Americans as possible.”

John Ashbrook of the Ruthless Podcast was in the new media seat on Friday and received the first question of the briefing.