Funny how the whole Washington press corps suddenly remembers Bill Clinton’s decoy plane ride the moment Donald Trump does the same thing. Funny how the difference between a “security precaution” and a “scandal” comes down to whether some reporter got pulled aside for a whispered briefing first.
The Washington Post reported that Trump secretly flew out of Turkey in July aboard a military aircraft while the White House told everyone he was on Air Force One. Security threats from Iran were the reason. The usual suspects treated this like a constitutional crisis. Then USA Today runs a piece by a former White House Correspondents Association president who says, hold on, Clinton did the exact same thing in 2000. Flew from India to Pakistan on an unmarked plane while the real Air Force One flew ahead as a decoy. Six-hour visit, extraordinary security, the whole nine yards.
Shealeah Craighead (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsBut here’s the part the media wants you to focus on. See, when Clinton did it, Press Secretary Joe Lockhart took the WHCA president aside for an “off-the-record conversation” about the security precautions. The reporter was the only journalist who knew about the switch. And that, we are told, is the difference. Clinton “honored the tradition.” Trump didn’t.
Ask yourself who benefits from that distinction.
The press pool system exists so that “independent observers” know the president’s whereabouts at all times. That’s the official line. Here’s what it actually means: a handful of handpicked reporters from the same dozen outlets get to feel important because someone in power whispered a secret in their ear. They call it transparency. I call it a club. And if you’re not in the club, you don’t count.
Bob McNeely, The White House[1] (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsWhen Clinton’s people briefed this reporter off the record, that wasn’t transparency. That was access. That was the establishment letting one of its own in on the game so the story could be controlled. The reporter even admits they kept it quiet until Clinton landed and the ruse was obvious to everyone. So the public didn’t know. The press pool didn’t know. One person knew, and that person stayed silent because that’s how the game works. You get the scoop, you keep the secret, and later you write a column about how honorable everyone was.
Now Trump flies a different plane out of Turkey because Iran is making threats, and the same press corps that sat on Clinton’s decoy flight is screaming about cover-ups and deception. The man was facing a security threat from a country that has been openly hostile, and the media’s concern is that they didn’t get to ride along and file a pool report.
Here’s what nobody in the press wants to admit. Every president has done something like this. The “tradition” of the press pool isn’t some sacred constitutional safeguard. It’s a courtesy extended by the White House to a group of reporters who have convinced themselves they are the fourth estate’s frontline. When the White House honors that courtesy, the press calls it responsible governance. When it doesn’t, the press calls it a threat to democracy.
Frank Schulenburg (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia CommonsThe real question isn’t why Trump didn’t tell the press pool where he was. The real question is why anyone thinks a small group of journalists from legacy outlets has some inherent right to track the president’s movements in real time during a security crisis. Iran doesn’t care about your pool reports. The Pentagon doesn’t brief the New York Times before every military operation. But fly a president on a different plane and suddenly it’s a scandal because CNN didn’t get a seat.
The establishment protects the establishment. The press protects the press. And the little guy is supposed to believe that the difference between Clinton’s decoy flight and Trump’s decoy flight is that one president whispered to the right reporter and the other didn’t. That’s not a standard. That’s a shakedown.