March 8, 2019 | by Chris Cillizza and Lauren Dezenski

How Bill Shine (and Donald Trump) killed the White House press briefing

Bill Shine is leaving the White House. But not without making his mark.

Shine, the former Fox News Channel co-president-turned-Trump White House communications adviser, accomplished a least one major goal of his -- and Donald Trump's -- before being shuttled to the 2020 reelection campaign: He killed the daily White House press briefing.

As CNN's White House team noted in its piece detailing Shine's departure: "Shine was a key force behind shutting down much of the press access to the White House, including the daily press briefing, per the source."

The results speak for themselves. There hasn't been a press briefing by press secretary Sarah Sanders since January 28 -- a space of 39 days. Prior to that January 28 briefing, Sanders hadn't done a press briefing in 40 days, according to Jim Acosta. Do the math and you get this: The White House has held a "daily" press briefing once in the last 79 days. And, according to The New York Times, Sanders did one press briefing a month in September, November and December.

Trump has been dismissive of the need for these daily -- or even weekly -- briefings since almost the start of his presidency. Sean Spicer, the White House's first press secretary, held the briefings regularly, but within the span of a few months it became like watching a car crash in slow motion -- over and over again. When Trump replaced Spicer with Sanders, the briefings slowed. Then Anthony Scaramucci was named communications director and, in a remarkable first appearance behind the podium, he promised a return to more regular briefings. The Mooch was fired 11 days later.

Since then, there has been a slow but steady strangling of the briefing. Shine's hire in July 2018 was, in retrospect, the death knell for the briefing. Shine, like Trump, believed the President was his own best messenger. So he put a system in place whereby Trump did what Trump wanted -- and that was to talk to the media whenever he felt like it and not worry too much about old traditions like the daily press briefing.

There's no question that Trump talks more -- a lot more -- than his immediate predecessors in the office. But that doesn't replace a daily briefing in which any reporter can obtain a daily press pass, go into the briefing room, and ask the spokeswoman for the President -- and the country -- a question.

The Point: Shine leaves the White House without a ton to show for it. Eliminating the daily press briefing, unfortunately, may be his lasting legacy.

-- Chris

Below, the week in 17 headlines.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I think it has been a very tough time for him."

-- President Donald Trump on Paul Manafort's sentence of 47 months in prison. Trump noted he felt "very badly" about his former campaign chair.

MAYBE THE SEVENTH TIME'S THE CHARM?

Bill Shine's abrupt exit from the Trump administration today adds his name to the list of former White House communications directors.

Shine joins his departed predecessors Jason Miller, Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke, Anthony Scaramucci and Hope Hicks.

But the Shine won't fully leave Trump's orbit -- he's got a role in Trump's 2020 campaign.

LAUREN'S GOOD READS

Gender discrimination knows no bounds

Brianna Keilar's latest column on a podcast tackling the politicization of the military

Why Trump loves the fake news, from Politico's John Harris

Brexit is the song that never ends...

This man has been tracking the British royals for 40 years

The Gayle King interview masterclass

This LaCroix tastes salty

The Austin food guide you definitely need

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

Hello new Black Keys!!!

A MEETING DECADES IN THE MAKING

They had never met -- until this morning.

Former President Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart and former independent counsel Ken Starr came face to face for the first time on CNN's "New Day." They were on a panel to debate the parallels between current Trump investigations with the Clinton investigations in the 1990s.

Starr led a legal team that investigated Clinton's involvement in the Whitewater real estate scandal and his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Watch their cordial first handshake.

LAUREN'S 2020 LATEST

Cory Booker: Scooped up the support of Charleston Democrats' leader Brady Quirk-Garvan, who has stepped down from his post to endorse Booker.

Elizabeth Warren: Has released a new plan to impose restrictions on large technology companies with more than $25 billion in annual revenue (like Google, Facebook and Amazon) to encourage competition.

Pete Buttigieg: Said he supports increasing the number of Supreme Court justices to 15 while at New Hampshire's Politics & Eggs event today.

📍DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS

2020 hopefuls are descending on Austin's marquee event SXSW this weekend. Here's a peek at the lineup (including CNN's triple town hall on Sunday night!):

Here's who's speaking at SXSW on Saturday, March 9:

And then on Sunday, March 10:

Back-to-back-to-back CNN town halls with Rep. John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Buttigieg
John Hickenlooper
Julian Castro
Jay Inslee

Meanwhile, in places that aren't Austin:

Saturday: New York Mayor Bill De Blasio visits another early voting state: this time, South Carolina. He's scheduled for breakfast with local Democrats in Columbia followed by a roundtable on criminal justice.
Kamala Harris will also be in South Carolina.

Sunday: Amy Klobuchar heads to Tampa for a roundtable discussion on climate change -- Hers is the first Florida campaign visit by a 2020 Democrat.
Elizabeth Warren is staying in Texas, holding an organizing event in Dallas.
Bernie Sanders holds two rallies in New Hampshire -- his first visit to the Granite State as a 2020 candidate.
Bill De Blasio will attend church in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Next week: Joe Biden is in Washington, DC on Tuesday for a keynote speech to the International Association of Fire Fighters' annual legislative conference. Will he (finally) definitively say whether he's running for president? We'll have to wait and see!

YOUR DAILY GIF

From Brenna: "Coming in for a weekend landing like this. Thanks for the illustration, Mayor Pete! Share The Point with someone you'll see this weekend so that you have something to talk about."

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