Think Donald Trump is the only candidate sidelining the press? Think again.

The Republican’s media blacklist, complaints about unbalanced coverage, and accusations that veteran reporters are simply fabricators have drawn the most vocal condemnation from the Washington press corps. But his stiff-arming has given Hillary Clinton an out that the media-wary candidate and her staff are just as ready to exploit.


First the Clinton press conferences and gaggles became rare. Now, the Trump campaign’s foot-dragging in allowing a basic press pool – a group of reporters that share travel duty to cover public events and minimize the logistics burden on the campaign – has given Clinton cover to not institute a protective pool, which would cover the candidate’s every move and ride on the campaign plane in the same way the White House press pool does and which typically begins when the candidates becomes the party’s official nominee.

One reporter covering the campaign said Clinton campaign officials directly cited Trump’s lack of a formal pool operation as part of the reason they have yet to set up a protective pool. Other reporters covering the Democratic nominee describe the situation as frustrating and “unlike anything in the past."

"It’s a false equivalency,” said the Washington Post’s Anne Gearan, who is part of a team chairing the Clinton press pool for the remainder of the election but noted she did not know why the Clinton campaign hadn’t allowed a protective pool yet. “We’re advocating for access for the Clinton press pool. Whatever Trump does is immaterial as far as we’re concerned."

The 2016 cycle marks the longest a candidate has gone without a protective press pool for the last three elections. In 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama’s coverage started in June, Sen. John McCain’s in July, as the Huffington Post noted last month. In 2012, Mitt Romney received protective pool coverage in early August (that year the Republican convention was held the last week of August).

The Trump campaign has lagged the Clinton campaign in organizing press planes and buses, and this week only had its second day of basic print pool reports, which came at the permission of the Trump campaign. It included the Associated Press, Bloomberg, the Daily Mail, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. Banned publications (including Politico) are not allowed on the Trump press plane.

The Clinton campaign has more regularly organized press buses and planes, and reporters have now issued hundreds of pool reports.

These buses and planes, however, are not the same as a protective pool that travels on the same plane as the candidate, gets more face time with senior staff, and is often let in for photo sprays in private events, such as fundraisers.

Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents Association and a Reuters White House correspondent, said officials from both campaigns were receptive to instituting protective pools when they met with the WHCA in spring and summer. Now, Mason said, it “feels late.”

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“A protective pool is there to be the eyes and ears of the press corps covering the president or covering a candidate for when news happens,” Mason said. "News doesn’t just happen at planned events. It can happen on a motorcade ride between two locations. It can happen anywhere. And the pool is set up to be there for those events. That’s why we push for it. We push for access because it’s the public’s right to know and it’s our jobs as journalists to tell those stories and be there in order to tell them."

Clinton campaign reporters have been told that a protective pool will be set up by the end of August. But Gearan said there is “no firm date” or “step by step commitment from the campaign when it will change.” Clinton campaign spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.

In the end, Trump may even beat Clinton at setting up a protective pool, despite the fact he’s still banning publications and has only allowed a print pool on two occasions. Jason Miller, senior communications adviser to Trump said in an email that they are “finalizing our plans for a protective press pool and I would expect an announcement on this early next week."

But when asked in a follow up whether banned publications would be included, Miller did not respond.

The concern by the press extends beyond getting access for stories ahead of Election Day. The lack of access by the candidate can lead to dangerous precedents once either Clinton or Trump enter the White House.

"From the Clinton side of it, certainly we have concerns that she is starting out with print organizations at a level of remove that is concerning to us,” Gearan said. "There are certain institutional norms that are in place at the White House for the way press access is treated. Those are not by right or law, they are as a result of negotiations and custom over a considerable amount of time. We certainly hope at this point in time there’s no consideration by the Clinton campaign that if she becomes president, she’d relax or go back on any of the current set of accommodations that are provided to the press in the White House.”

