White House Playboy Correspondent Talks Politics, Trump Drama and Weed

Additional letter from JJ McKay

Journalist, musician, rebel, and White House Playboy correspondent Brian Karemathe life that student dreams are made of. Karem is the lead singer of the Rhythm Bandits Band when he’s not interviewing the West Wing president and staff, or when he’s a politician Analyst for CNN and its Just Ask The Question podcast.

In August 2019, Trump’s White House suspended Karem’s press ID. Karem has filed a lawsuit in response and on June 5, 2020, judge David S. Tatel of United States Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the White House Press Office falsely suspended Karem’s press card so that Karem to continue to cover the president. In 1991, KareeI got that National Press Club Freedom of the press award for refusing to reveal his sources in a story about the murder of a police officer Texas.[4][5]

John Hudak, a leading voice in the cannabis field and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, sat down with Karem to discuss politics and marijuana.

Photo by Francois Galland / Getty Images

HUDAK: How did you become a White House reporter and someone covering the White House and national politics?

KAREM: I’ve been a reporter since 1980 … something. I first covered the 1984 presidential campaign with Reagan. The first time I walked into the briefing room was in 1986, and since then I have reported on national politics in various places.

HUDAK: Have you always been interested in journalism?

KAREM: I’ve always been interested To write. My family’s job is mostly lawyers and judges, and I remember my uncle handing me a check when I was a kid and saying, “This is where you go to law school.” And I tore it open, gave it back to him and said, “I don’t want to.”

I really wanted to write, and I had a really big interest in seeing things as they happen. And that led me to journalism. To be able to see things as they happen, record them and let people know what happened – I was more comfortable with it than anything.

HUDAK: You have reported on several presidents at home and abroad. How would you rate the first seven months of President Biden’s tenure?

KAREM: He had to hit a low bar because Donald Trump was the worst president I have ever reported on in my life. That said, Biden has exceeded that very low bar. I think one of the most impressive things Biden has done in his first seven months is trying to get the stunted muscles of non-partisans working again. I spent four years – maybe 200 weeks – with Donald Trump telling me it was an infrastructure week and he didn’t do anything about infrastructure, and this administration did. And his response to the COVID crisis has been pretty impressive.

All in all, I think (President Biden) did some really good things. That being said, I’m still worried about how he handled the media. I think the failure to hold Saudi Arabia accountable (Washington Post reporter) Jamal KHAshoggi’s death is reprehensible. I expected it from Donald Trump. I expected better from Biden.

But all in all, I think he’s something we haven’t seen in the United States in the past four and a half years, and that is, a president. I think there is no doubt that he is committed to bringing the country together and working with all groups to move the country forward.

HUDAK: To take up one of these points: First of all, you are not only a media representative, but also a critic and someone who writes about the role of the media. There’s always some tension between a White House and the media, how has that relationship been for the past seven months?

KAREM: The relationship for me personally was much better. I haven’t received a death threat since (January 6th)) Riot. The briefings are again “semi-normal”. (White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki) treats the media with respect; she does it very well. She reminds me of Mike McCurry, the best public relations officer I’ve seen in my life.

But the East Room isn’t open to the whole press; they selectively choose who is there to speak to the president (after formal events). There are reporters who have covered every seven months of this administration who have not been able to ask the president a single question. But the relationship is much more normal than the last government.

HUDAK: To talk a little about cannabis, cannabis has become a mainstream public policy issue over the past 25 years, what do you think is the most interesting aspect of the evolution of this issue?

KAREM: The most interesting thing for me is the demystification and de-demonization of the topic. People my age and below, cannabis isn’t a big deal. I remember growing up I was told that if you smoke a marijuana cigarette you go straight to hell – that’s what the priest said. The other part was, if you smoke one, you would be addicted to it forever. And I was always cynical about that.

When my father had lung cancer and he was dying and losing a lot of weight from chemotherapy and the doctors couldn’t find a way to get him to eat. And I said, “Well, I have a way …” Well, dad, who was taught to be the “bad weed”. So I got him high and he got hungry and he got his weight back. And (the doctors) had given him 30 days to live by that point, and he was still alive for a year and a half, and I attribute that in part to the availability of weed to make him healthy enough to exercise so that I can take him off the house so it doesn’t go to waste.

HUDAK: One of the problems that you raised in the Biden administration at the beginning was the dismissal of employees for previous cannabis use. Was there any news as to whether the practice continued and whether the White House responded?

Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images

KAREM: The White House replied that it wasn’t about cannabis use, but how the questions were answered. I believe so. You see, the administration is nowhere near against marijuana. I believe that particular story got disproportionate in the media.

HUDAK: You talked about the demonization of cannabis and the indoctrination of Americans about it early on. Do you think this decades of behavior is why cannabis, despite its popularity with the public, remains such a toxic topic with some elected officials?

KAREM: I think there are a combination of reasons why some people might not want to bring up marijuana in public. One is that they are scared. Another are evangelicals. Third, the right-wing extremist doesn’t think about it, it just does everything reflexively. And that sad part is that most of the people who got elected to office were high. Or if not, it should be.

You know, I worked as a bouncer in college and I ended a lot of arguments. But they were never stoned between two people. They were always among drunks; they would get violent and angry. The misunderstanding about marijuana, its medical uses, its meaning, the fact that it helps some people relax – it has always been called a “gateway drug” and I have to tell you, in my experience, alcohol was more of a gateway drug than marijuana .

I sadly trained a kid in high school who spent a year in jail for two marijuana joints – two joints! They sent him away for a year. He went in innocently; he came out as a criminal. There is no way to criminalize marijuana. It should be decriminalized; it should be legal; it should be available. And it should be taxed. And if you think there is a problem with marijuana, go to places where it’s legal and see it firsthand.