The criticism came after the White House stripped the WHCA of its power to determine which reporters were in the press pool.
By Ryan Saavedra Feb 25, 2025 DailyWire.com
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt torched New York Times reporter Peter Baker on Tuesday evening for whining about the White House control over who is in the press pool of reporters who follow the president and get to ask him questions.
“Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access,” Baker complained on X.
He claimed that the White House removing the Associated Press from the briefing room for not accurately reporting the name of the “Gulf of America” was a sign that it would kick out any news organization if the administration “does not like their questions or stories.”
“Every president of both parties going back generations subscribed to the principle that a president doesn’t pick the press corps that is allowed in the room to ask him questions,” Baker claimed. “Trump has just declared that he will.”
Leavitt fired back on X: “Give me a break, Peter 🤡.”
“Moments after you tweeted this, the President invited journalists into the Oval and took questions for nearly an hour,” she wrote. “Your hysterical reaction to our long overdue and much needed change to an outdated organization is precisely why we made it.”
“Gone are the days where left-wing stenographers posing as journalists, such as yourself, dictate who gets to ask what,” she added.
Leavitt announced earlier in the day that the White House will determine which reporters get to follow Trump around in the press pool.
“For decades, a group of D.C.-based journalists — White House Correspondents Association — has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States in these most intimate spaces. Not anymore,” Leavitt said. “I am proud to announce that we are going to give power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows, and who listen to your radio stations.”
“Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team,” she added. “Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join, fear not. But we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility. Just like we added a new media seat in this briefing room, legacy media outlets who have been here for years will still participate in the pool, but new voices are going to be welcomed in as well.”
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.
Good morning, digital neighbors! I will be away this week at Convocation and mostly offline. I will check in to keep the email from piling up, but I will not be doing my morning missives, checking in for Teams Coffee Talk, or any other posting throughout the week. Please know that you will be on my mind and in my prayers.
Our Vicar for Priests sent out this message to the faithful to explain the nature of the Convocation:
Once every four years for the past four decades, the priests of the Archdiocese of St. Louis have been called together by our Archbishop for a week-long Convocation. It is a time of prayer, enrichment for ministry, and fellowship in priestly fraternity.
As the experience of priestly life and ministry in our Archdiocese continues to evolve — particularly as priests are called upon to pastor multiple parishes simultaneously, and as communities as large as 1,800 to 2,000 households are increasingly served by only one priest — opportunities for enrichment for our priests, such as ...
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
