On January 14, Roll Call reported, “The Senate sergeant-at-arms and Capitol Police are launching an unprecedented crackdown on the Capitol press corps for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.” The planned restrictions suggest that “credentialed reporters and photographers whom senators interact with on a daily basis are considered a threat.” Many journalists quickly denounced the move.
According to the report, the rule changes are a “break with precedent” from the previous impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton and force journalists to remain in a “press pen” as senators enter and exit the chamber. The move will “squelch” the “time-honored practice” among Capitol Hill reporters of “walking, talking and relationship-building” with senators as they move through the building, making it far easier for them to avoid journalists’ questions on Trump’s impeachment trial. Additional security also “has the potential to cause delays and shape coverage of the impeachment trial itself.”
Sarah Wire, Los Angeles Times congressional reporter and chair of the Standing Committee of Correspondents, said in a detailed Twitter thread that the committee’s suggestions for better policies “were rejected without an explanation of how the restrictions contribute to safety rather than simply limit coverage of the trial.”