The White House has assigned a permanent ceremonial honor guard to the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room podium, effective immediately, and press secretary Katie Zacharia must now salute the lectern before taking any question and again after answering it, according to a directive read aloud to reporters on Tuesday.
The guard, drawn from a newly created Podium Protection Detail, stands at attention behind the lectern for the duration of each briefing, wearing dress uniforms tailored to match the room's blue carpet. Zacharia is required to approach the podium at a measured pace, render the salute, and only then begin speaking. Officials said the measure was necessary because the podium had been «insufficiently honored» for years.
Reporters who fail to stand when the guard enters are escorted to a designated re-education corner in the rear of the room, where they must watch a looping video of the podium being polished. Three correspondents have already been reassigned to that corner full-time. The White House Correspondents' Association has requested a schedule of salute times, which the administration says will be published daily at dawn.
By next week, every federal briefing room is expected to receive its own honor guard, and the Office of Management and Budget has begun converting storage closets into salute rehearsal spaces. Zacharia, for her part, has reportedly requested a second podium so that one can be saluted while the other is being saluted.