Free Republic

Ateba has been at the center of tense situations within the briefing room. Today News Africa's White House correspondent Simon Ateba has filed a lawsuit against White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the Secret Service alleging his credentials were illegally revoked. The lawsuit was filed last week on behalf of Ateba by the Center for American Liberty, a nonprofit founded by lawyer and Republican Party official Harmeet Dhillon. The complaint argues the White House adopted stringent criteria for press credentials in May 2023, violating Ateba's First Amendment rights by excluding him from briefings without a compelling reason. In addition,...

President @JoeBiden spending virtually no money for his re-election campaign. In the second quarter of this year, according to fresh data, his campaign had only four people on the payroll, spent less than $1,500 on travel, accommodations, and airfare. In all, Biden’s campaign spent $1.1 million in the second quarter of this year. His former boss @BarackObama spent more than $11 million in the second quarter of 2011 when he was running for re-election, and he barely won re-election. So the question is, how does Biden intend to win?

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre threatened to abruptly end Monday’s press briefing after Today News Africa White House correspondent Simon Ateba interrupted her. Ateba once again lamented over Jean-Pierre refusing to call on him for the past nine months, right after she publicly condemned the harassment of journalists. “You’ve been discriminating against me for the past nine months,” Ateba said. “Stop,” one reporter said. “How is she discriminating?” “She called on you. She just gave you a few questions. Please, allow me to do my job and ask my question,” he replied. Jean-Pierre called on another reporter, but Ateba...

Simon Ateba of Today News Africa is the mouth that roars at the White house press briefings. He sits in the back row in seats assigned to members of the White House Correspondents Association who skip the briefings. From there, he shouts questions in a booming voice that others won't ask. On Tuesday, he stumped the dim-witted Karine Jean-Pierre. Today News Africa is a small web site that runs on donations only. After he dared embarrass Jen Psaki on the last day of her job by asking why she ignored questions from the back row, the WHCA threatened to suspend...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s final briefing with reporters went off the rails Friday after one reporter repeatedly shouted a question about fair access in the room. As Psaki began to take questions — after fighting back tears as she thanked members of the administration and the press corps — Simon Ateba, the chief White House correspondent for Today News Africa, was heard yelling from the back of the press briefing room. “Why don’t you take questions from across the room?” Ateba asked as Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller attempted to get things started with a query about the...