The way. While he is obstructing the transition of power, the administration is obstructing the free flow of information. Being afraid to answer questions or stand there and field the questions and try to dodge them. Press briefings have disappeared from the white house and from key Government Agencies. Lets start at the white house in the press Briefing Room which we havent seen much of lately. Now, Kayleigh Mcenany showed up on friday. It was her first briefing in seven weeks. She has been avoiding the press just like her boss. This is from october when the president spoke to the White House Press corps all the time in the days leading up to the election. Fast forward to november, and you will see he has not answered a single question from the White House Press corps in 19 days. This is an unprecedented streak of silence from the president of the united states. He is instead choosing to overturn the via twitter with some of the media using words like attempted coup to describe his actions. Look, we knew this was going to happen. He telegraphed this years and months before election day. He was eroding trust in voting all the while. Now his appointees are doing his bidding avoiding questions, avoiding answering the publics questions. We still havent heard from the again Services Administrator who is choosing to hold up the transfer of power. We have barely heard from trumps covid task force, including Vice President mike pence. There was this socalled press conference on thursday, but it wasnt a press conference at all. Because biden excuse me, pence abruptly left the room when reporters wanted to ask questions. So pence didnt take a single question. Look at jon karl, like all of us, taking his mic off angrily because the Vice President would not answer questions from report reporters. This behavior is not just happening at the white house or the gsa. At the pentagon Christopher Miller has not taken question from reporters when he announced this important step, withdrawal of thousands of troops from afghanistan and iraq coming up just before inauguration day. He went out to the briefing. He used the Briefing Room to announce this and then again he did not answer questions from reporters. Here is cnns ryan browne pointing out on twitter saying miller refused to take questions on that decision or anything else. You know, the last time the pentagon spokesman when a fullscale, fullfledged press briefing was back in july. And what about the former secretary of defense mark esper . He last held a briefing in june before being replaced. This trend, this phenomenon continues throughout trumps government. The last time secretary of state mike pompeo took questions from state Department Journalists was back on november 10th. He has been traveling the world with reporters but staying away from those reporters. This is a show of weakness. It is actually an insult to you. Not just to the press. But to you, the American People, when we are in the midst of turmoil, this transition, this state of limbo in america. For Government Agencies, taxpayerfunded spokespeople in Government Agencies to avoid questions and deny the reporters a chance to ask questiones is an insult to the American People. A show of weakness. So what about the incoming president . What about president elect biden . He has been somewhat available in recent days. He did hold two sessions this week on camera where he fielded questions from reporters, taking questions from five reporters on monday, four reporters on thursday. And notably, this sunday morning on all five of the biggest sunday morning shows, bidens speaks people, biden aides are available. They have all been interviewed on state of the union, face the nation, meet the press. That is notable because Trump White House aides are mia. Nobody from trump world is out there defending this reckless legal strategy. It is very notable the differences we are seeing between the biden camp and trump camp right now. For more, one of cnns best, our white house reporter, White House Correspondent kaitlan collins. She had an interesting experience with the other day. These access issues, its throughout the government. Do you have a sense of why, whats going on . I think really what it boils down to and why you see people like the Vice President not take questions at a Coronavirus Task force briefing, the first one of those kinds since the month of july when they last held one at the department of labor is because they dont want to answer questions about what the president is doing. This attempt to overturn the results of the election, which of course is going to be one of the number one questions every Single Person asked. You are seeing time and time again officials are refusing to comment on this or put themselves in a situation where they know they would be asked by this by reporters. Wi with Kayleigh Mcenany, its not just this pattern where she is only taking a handful of questions. Its an effort throughout the entire government. I think the reason this is so concerning is because this isnt this quiet twomonth period where the president is on his way out, joe biden is on his way in. We are seeing him actively block the Biden Transition Team from getting access to resources, to emails, money, things that they need to get started on their transition into federal government. But also you are seeing all of this other activity on behalf of the president. He is punching the top leadership at the pentagon. He is making moves about drawing down troops in iraq and afghanistan. They are taking all of these efforts that are things that typically a government would have to talk about. Of course, you are seeing time and time again officials are avoiding talking about it because they dont want to talk about what the president is doing. Right. They dont have answers. When mcenany called you an activist, what was that moment like in the room . To me its a reminder how far this white house has fallen, how pathetic the behavior is. If that happened in the clinton, bush, obama years, its unfathomable. We cant imagine that happening. So pathetic. Really the sad state of affairs is it didnt faze me or the other reporters in the room because we have seen Something Like that time and time again. Right. Great point. Not typical behavior of a press secretary in maany way. You are doing your job. You defended yourself. Kayleigh, you are not doing your job. What about the headlines this week . Coup, attempted coup, sedition. I wonder what the view is there at the white house . How do you and fellow reporters view this . Is this more of an attempted coup or more like a bad comedy . I think when you step back and you look at this, its easy to dismiss it as silly, to look at what Rudy Giuliani is doing and people kind of roll their eyes at him or see sydney powell, the other trump attorney making her claims without presenting evidence from that press conference last week. But whats important to remember is this is incredibly serious because you are right what you said at the top of the show. What the president is doing is not surprising but its shocking he is actively trying to overturn the results of a free and Fair Election, firing the official who said it was free and fair, but its incredibly serious, the claims that they are making. To see the trump attorney going on Television Last flight and accuse the georgia governor of crimes because they dont like the way the results turned out in the state, even though they did a hand recount that affirmed joe bidens win, while we have been very sure about saying joe biden won this election, he is going to be inaugurated in january and he will be the president , the president is misleading millions of his supporters currently by undermining the vote, undermining joe biden before he even gets into office. So he is setting it up for people to not view joe biden as a legitimate president. Those were the same accusations that donald trump felt he faced his first years in office. Instead of learning from that, he is trying to inflict that on his successor. Right. Great insight. Katelyn, thank you for being there today and always. Let me bring in our panelists. Airline lewis, political anchor, jane is a Senior Reporter for buzzfeed, focused on disenergies, and brendan is a professor of government at Dartmouth College specializing in media criticism. Biden made a little mistake yesterday. He went to Church Without the protected press pool. Normally a small group of reporters are with the president at all times, even when heading to mass. There was a kerfuffle among the press why he left them behind. Bidens team was on the sunday shows giving interviews. Biden has been holding press conferences, answering questions from reporters. Trump is in hiding and refuses to take questions. It seems these two approaches could not be more different between trump and biden. Thats right. And, listen, joe biden i think has decided if he is not going to have a regular transition, the way all of his predecessors got, he is going to have his own transition. He is the news. What he and his Incoming Administration are going to do are a thousand times more important than the insults and the obstructionism coming out of the current administration. And so i think reporters will naturally gravitate to him and notice things like him slipping off to Church Without telling the press about it. This overall is a good thing because to the extent that we have got norms and customs as opposed to firm laws that guide the transition, its going to be up to us to decide what a transition looks like. In this case, somebody who starts assembling a cabinet, talking policy, leading by example, and preparing to take the reins of power. Thats the essence of a transition. A transition official source said to me this morning, there is a new sheriff in town. By the white house not giving interviews today, quoted, they are basically admitting defeat but not even showing up to defend their absurd position. That does speak volumes. Brendan, you have a saying you use on twitter in crises like the one we are still in. What is it that you say . How do you want americans to view whats happening in american with this election denialism . I often ask, what would you say if you saw it in another country . We get tied up in all of the details and the things we know about this context, but the story, if you pull back, is very clear. A leader with authoritarian tendencies has lost a free and Fair Election and is trying to overturn the results of that process. He is trying to overturn the peaceful transfer of power. He told us he wouldnt faollow through on his duty under the constitution to enact a peaceful transfer of power. Thats interesting. The fact that it wont succeed doesnt make it any less pernicious, especially given that so many republicans are going along with this clownish effort. What if this election are closer . What if they found 500 cases of fraud they could use as a pretext instead of talking about the ghost of hugo chavez . We are far from anything credible, yet still the president is pushing our Democratic Institutions to their very limits. Thats incredibly dangerous and we need to think about whats happening and not lose sight of the real danger being revealed here eastbound if it wont succeed. What would you say if this was happening in another country . Jane, you are based in toronto. As our canadian, you answer it. Well, this is a result of a disinformation problem that has been rampant not just over the last four years, but for the better part of the last decade globally. And the u. S. Feels like its one of the last countries to feel the full effect of that disinformation problem. The issue with the u. S. Grappling with whats real and whats not real is that it has a huge effect on global politics, including canada, which is, you know, americas as we are often described. So to allow for this distrust, this public distrust, for this disinformation problem to go forward, its going to be a case where its not just the u. S. And the u. S. Democracy being affected, but also other democracies around the world that rely on the u. S. , a beacon of democratic norms. Thats an important part of the story we have to keep bringing up in our coverage, that this effects the entire world. Coming up here, foxs big announcement that contradicts fox news channels onair commentary. And later, Rudy Giulianis new Favorite Channel newsmax tv. Still your best friend. And now your copilot. Still a father. But now a friend. Still an electric car. Just more electrifying. Still a night out. But everything fits in. Still hard work. Just a little easier. Still a legend. Just more legendary. Chevrolet. Making lifes journey, just better. I do motivational speakingld. In addition to the substitute teaching. I honestly feel that thats my calling to give back to younger people. 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Actually, i heard an answer on fox news earlier this week when marie harf articulated that connection. Heres what she said. This week those republicans have pushed two stories. They rejected covid restrictions that doctors are asking us to follow and many of them are pushing to reject the election results. Both are a broader trend that are really disturbing. They are a rejection of math, expertise, science, and both are really dangerous to the American People and to our democracy. So what does that say about the Republican Party . And their rightwing media complex . Does it speak to raz calization that is going on . With me, errol louis, jane, and brendan back with me. Brendan, you study this as a professor of political science. These links between covid skepticism and rejection of all expertise and science and math and data. What do you think is the troubling nature of foxs coverage the rest of the time . Marie was right about that during the day. At night i hear about masks and how, you know, masks are not that helpful and all of this kind of stuff that seems to be more about identity politics than Public Health. Thats my worry, is that they are turning these Public Health measures into a kind of own the libs mentality, having a giant thanksgiving is somehow going to own the libs or not wear a mask. Thats the opposite of what we need. When President Trump wore a mask we saw positive surges in sentiment online about maskwearing. Like he could really set an example. We need conservatives embracing Public Health measures saying you will really own the libs by having a soshlly distanced thanksgiving. That would be wonderful. These measures arent liberal or conservative. They are just going to save lives as we head into this likely very deadly winter. Its critical to not turn the Public Health measures that will keep us safe into a matter of identity politics. Thats unfortunately what we are often seeing in the own the libs Industrial Complex that thrives on fox and online. I am going to use that. Thats good. Its also hypocritical, by the way. A headline from variety this week. Fox corporation, which owns fox news, is keeping staff at home at least until april. Essential employees are making sure the networks stay on the air. Including some fox anchors. They are anchoring from home as they denounce the lockdown mentality. Errol, the election denialism part of this, does it all speak to a failure of the Republican Party leadership to lead its supporters . Well, yeah. There is a failure of leadership. Lets not give it a title like elect