Biden White House not releasing virtual visitor logs as watchdogs call for transparency
Biden pressured to 'embrace open government' by open-government orgs
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Biden administration will not release White House virtual visitor logs, Fox News has confirmed, as watchdog organizations call on President Biden to do so in the name of transparency.
A White House official told Fox News that the administration does not plan to share the names of attendees of virtual White House meetings — which have become the norm amid the coronavirus pandemic.
FLASHBACK: PSAKI PROMISES 'TRANSPARENCY'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A White House official also told Politico on Monday it would not release virtual logs.
"Virtual meetings will not be subject to release — in the same way that previous administrations didn’t release phone logs — but we’re planning on regularly releasing the attendee lists for in-person meetings at the White House," the official told Politico.
The White House has come under scrutiny for a lack of transparency -- and has been criticized for not posting the schedules of President Biden and Vice President Harris online and for shutting down the White House comment line.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Last week, 43 open-government organizations, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, penned a letter to Biden, calling on him to "embrace open government" as one of his administration's "most important priorities."
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But White House spokesperson Mike Gwin said the president "committed during the campaign to restoring ethics and transparency to government, and in his first weeks in office he’s taken significant steps to deliver on that, including by reinstating the daily press briefing, putting in place sweeping ethics guidelines for the administration, and pledging to regularly release visitor logs again."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}White House press secretary Jen Psaki has held press briefings every day during the week, except on the weekends and holidays, since Biden took office.
Psaki frequently invites administration officials to the podium to take questions from the press on certain actions or policy rollouts from the administration.