Joe Lockhart served as White House press secretary from 1998-2000. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) In the month of September, the "daily" White House briefing was held one time. That's not a typo, the press secretary went to the podium in the White House for an on-camera briefing once. Was there only one working day in September, a short month maybe? No, I checked -- 30 days like a normal September.

Joe Lockhart

I don't really know why this White House has abandoned the daily briefing. There are many theories. Perhaps they perceive the press as part of the Democratic Party and why give the opposition the forum to run down the President? Some in the White House, including the President, I think, argue that Trump is the administration's best spokesperson and only he should speak on camera for them. Others say the press secretary is afraid to be undercut within minutes by the President himself. In the end, only the President and press secretary know for sure.

The more important question, in my opinion, is: Does it really matter? Many of my friends on the left are glad to see them go. They argue it only gave Sarah Huckabee Sanders another outlet to spread more lies. While the briefings are sometimes painful to watch, and to fact check, I couldn't disagree more. The "daily briefing" is good for the White House and the reporters who cover it and, most importantly, it's good for the country.

Let's start with the interests of the White House. The daily briefing forces an internal discipline on White House staff and the President. Decision making often can languish without a deadline. Knowing the administration has to go out at 1 p.m. every day and promote or defend key policy decisions forces everyone involved to bring matters to a close. You can't go out day after day and say we haven't decided yet and not create the impression that you're having trouble getting things done.

The daily briefing also forces much deeper communication within the government. That is especially true on national security issues. Before going out to do a briefing when I was the press secretary, I had a detailed conference call with my counterparts at the State Department, Pentagon and often the CIA. We settled any differences or nuances in advance of going out to brief the press. These differences were often escalated to the respective Cabinet members, again resulting in better decision making.

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