Biden lifts secrecy of White House visitor logs cloaked by Trump

Bloomberg

President Joe Biden’s White House released its first set of records detailing visits by official guests, returning to a practice set by the Obama administration and dismissed by the Trump team, disclosing 400 visits during his first 12 days in office.
While hundreds of visitors might have visited the White House complex on an ordinary pre-pandemic day, the sparse logs from the start of the Biden presidency show just how limited in-person activities were. A fifth of those listed are members of the Marine Band and the Herald Trumpets who performed on Inauguration Day, and one of the most frequent visitors was an American Sign Language interpreter.
With in-person visits limited, the records aren’t the same trove of lobbyist, donor and activist names that were disclosed in former President Barack Obama’s logs.
There is one exception: First lady Jill Biden, a longtime teacher, hosted the leaders of the country’s major teachers’ unions on her husband’s first full day in office, on January 21. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Becky Pringle were at the White House along with Miguel Cardona, then the nominee for education secretary and his wife Marissa, for a live virtual event to
honour teachers.
Logs provide the names of visitors to the White House for appointments, official business and, once they resume after a pandemic hiatus, tours.
The records released are for January, beginning on January 20 at noon as Biden took the oath of office. One of the most frequent visitors, with seven visits over the 12 days tracked, was Dana Mittelman, a sign-language interpreter.
“As vaccinations increase and the pandemic response continues to make progress, we look forward to welcoming many more visitors onto the White House campus and back into the People’s House,” the White House said in a statement. A White House official said it would not
release the names of
participants in virtual
meetings, noting that past administrations did not publish phone call logs.
The Biden White House is the first to commit to releasing its records from the president’s first day in office. The Obama White House posted its first set of records online in December 2009 and they dated back only to September 15 of that year, nearly eight months after Obama took office.