White House vows to take more Skype questions after six-week lull

The Trump administration is vowing to give more reporters from outside Washington, D.C., a chance to ask questions at the daily White House press briefing, even though it's been six weeks since spokesman Sean Spicer took a question from someone in the remote "Skype seats" that he rolled out at the start of the administration.

Four months ago, Spicer rolled out the idea of taking remote questions from reporters outside the nation's capital. It was seen as an aggressive decision to de-emphasize the mainstream reporters that usually get the lion's share of the questions during the daily briefings and instead give reporters from rural areas, including in states that Trump carried during the election, a chance to participate in the briefing.

The move also came after President Trump's many famous scrapes with the mainstream press during the campaign.

However, the White House has taken questions from the Skype seats less and less frequently over Trump's first four months.

According to a Washington Examiner analysis of the briefings, Skype questions were taken with much more regularity at the start of the Trump administration. In February, Spicer took questions from 18 remote reporters in five different press briefings. In March, the White House took questions from just seven remote reporters in four different briefings.