Trump Team Considering Changing TWH Press Briefings

Seating Chart for The White House Press Briefings

The Trump administration is considering doing away with the assigned seating in the White House briefing room, the president-elect's pick for chief of staff, Reince Priebus, told Salem radio host Hugh Hewitt, according to ABC News.

Seats in the front row of the briefing room are coveted and occupied by the networks, cable outlets and wire services.

Priebus also incorrectly asserted that the arrangement was put in place by the Obama White House. The seating assignments are actually controlled by the White House Correspondents' Association.

“There was a notable factual inaccuracy in Mr Priebus's remarks: News organizations have had assigned seats in the briefing room since those seats were installed in 1981. That was not an Obama-era innovation as Mr. Priebus suggested,” WHCA President Jeff Mason said in a statement.

Wednesday morning, Priebus incorrectly told Hewitt that reporters could take any seat they wanted under the Bush administration.

Priebus also said the possibility of changing the current seating assignment in the briefings "is being talked about” by the transition team.

Mason said the WHCA looks forward to working with the incoming administration to address questions or concerns about the arrangement.

“The WHCA assumed responsibility for assigning the seats in the briefing room over the last two decades at the request of both Republican and Democratic administrations, who were mindful of the potential appearance of playing favorites if they assigned the seats themselves,” Mason said.