Eugene Daniels does not plan to be the face of the White House press in the dawn of a new news media hostile administration.
But because of a provision in the White House Journalists Association’s charter, a panel of 800 journalists, reported on the president, who was then CNN star Kaitlan Collins, the association’s 2024-25 president, had to resign due to the relocation to New York.
Mr. Daniels, 36, is a co-author of the Politico script newsletter and has now become a key figure in the escalation of the Trump White House’s struggle for news access and freedom. He is balancing his role in the association, an unpaid volunteer work, and his career moved to a new live broadcast job at MSNBC this month.
“We’re all competitors, fierce competitors, and the White House beatings are tough, but at the same time, when it’s time to stand together, people actually do that,” Mr. Daniels said of the Press Association in an interview. “Unfortunately, that’s where we are.”
There is no secret to the Trump administration’s contempt for journalists, but actions in recent weeks have shocked many news outlets.
President Trump first instructed his communication team to avoid the Associated Press from news reports, a group of journalists traveling with the president, as well as spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One. Mr. Trump’s executive order changed the geographic name to the United States is retaliation against the Associated Press’s continued use of the “Gulf of Mexico”. (Double media outlets including CNN, The New York Times and Fox News protested the decision, and the Associated Press filed the first amendment lawsuit.)
On February 25, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the administration will begin deciding which journalists can participate in the news pool and shut down the president, a role the White House Press Association has held for decades.
This move has caused a new wave of rebound. “This move does not return power to the people, it gives the White House power,” said Jacqui Heinrich, senior White House correspondent, on X.
Mr Daniels said in a statement at the time that the move “she shed tears in the independence of the American free media.” He told members in an email that the White House Press Association “will not help this administration or anyone else take over the White House’s independent news coverage.”
“So far, every administration, including the Trump administration in the first semester, has learned that those who are covering should make these decisions, not those who are being covered,” Mr. Daniels said in an interview.
Mr. Daniels began his career on a local TV station in Colorado Springs, and joined Politico as a video journalist in 2018. He was promoted to become a White House reporter, covering the Biden administration, with a focus on Vice President Kamala Harris. He has co-written in influential script newsletters over the past four years.
This month, he will move to MSNBC, the first journalist since the announcement in November that the cable channel will soon be transferred to a new publicly traded company by its parent company Comcast. Comcast separates most of its wired networks, including MSNBC, CNBC and USA Network, from film studios and theme parks.
Comcast will also retain the NBC broadcast network, which means MSNBC will no longer have access to NBC News’ news collection operations. MSNBC’s newly appointed president Rebecca Kutler hopes to build cable channels in a wider lineup, including the establishment of the Washington Bureau and the hiring of domestic and international correspondents.
Mr. Daniels has been a political analyst at MSNBC since 2021 and will be a senior correspondent in Washington and co-host of “The Weekend,” a group show Saturday and Sunday morning, along with Jonathan Capehart and other hosts who have not been named. His new role was announced on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday.
“Who is in the Oval Office doesn’t matter to me when he turns to a more liberal channel,” Mr. Daniels said. “My job is to find out the information.”
As part of the MSNBC lineup, Joy Reid’s evening news show “The Reidout” was cancelled. Her performance will be replaced by a show led by Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez, the current host of “The Weekend.” MSNBC commentator Ayman Mohyeldin is expected to host the “Weekend” evening edition.
Mr Daniels appeared as a gay person at the age of 27 and posted on social media about his personal life, and as his profile grew, he became increasingly the subject of slander and criticism online. He said he had removed the X social platform on his phone as “self-care” so he could focus on his work. “For me, it’s separate, and other people feel differently except for the work I do, which is great,” he said.
For now, he is focused on fighting the White House to cover up the president and coordinate responses among members of the White House Press Association. It consists of journalists from various news outlets including CNN, The Times and Fox News.
Although Mr. Daniels won’t comment on the association’s internal discussion on how best to move forward, he said the broad position among his members is that people covering the White House should coordinate the logistics of coverage, “not worrying about what they wrote that day and whether they would give them a question.”
“We are working to make sure that the American people can trust that the pool reports and the information that is coming has not changed, and that’s not just governments come from governments,” Daniels said.
Mr Daniels told association members last week that this year’s White House reporter’s annual dinner will go as planned. Mr. Trump boycotted dinner throughout the semester. Whether he will participate this year remains to be seen.
