'Transparency back to the briefing room': Psaki commits to pre-Trump press norms - POLITICO

The new White House press secretary said she would share information “even when it is hard to hear.”.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Wednesday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki committed on Wednesday to “bringing truth and transparency back to the briefing room,” in her first news briefing of Joe Biden’s presidency.

“Rebuilding trust with the American people will be central to our focus in the press office and in the White House every single day,” Psaki told reporters in a largely empty briefing room on Wednesday evening, just seven hours after Biden was sworn into office.

Psaki’s appearance on Wednesday was the first White House news briefing since Dec.

For the White House press corps and news media at large, besieged by Trump for four years and denigrated as “fake news,” Psaki’s maiden answers from the podium established a new standard that the White House must now live by.

The briefing room was far under capacity to respect Covid social-distancing rules, and Psaki came out onto the lectern in an N-95 mask — a preventative measure that former-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany often declined.