LIVE VIDEO: White House Press Briefing

An op-ed in today’s Roll Call supports Trump’s threat to end these briefings. An excerpt:

President Donald Trump tweeted Friday that, because his aides can’t speak with “perfect accuracy,” it might be best “to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy.” I agree.

Trump has identified an obvious truth in his administration: If his aides speak less, they will necessarily lie less. Trump presents his finding as some sort of natural gap between the truth and what is said on his behalf, as though his spokespeople are just poor connectors in a game of telephone.

Of course, the real reason they lie so much is because that’s a requirement of the job in the Trump presidency. If you won’t sacrifice your honor and integrity for Trump, publicly, shamelessly and on a daily basis, you won’t work for him for long.

In some cases, though, Trump is right. His aides — from Sean Spicer to Sarah Huckabee Sanders — are simply not effectively communicating his latest fabrication. All too often, they are on the early-early afternoon talking points when Trump already has moved on to make policy or political adjustment with the early-afternoon talking points. This clearly annoys Trump as much as he is delighted by the lying on his behalf.