#14 POLITICO's White House correspondent, Anita Kumar, on covering 3 presidents
+ the nominees getting nixed by the White House
Welcome to Trailblazers! I’m Simi Shah, author of this newsletter. Every other week, my team and I bring you trailblazing by and for South Asians. But you don’t have to be South Asian — if you’re interested in learning from leaders across media, tech, and more, you’re in the right place. Find us on Insta and LinkedIn.
P.S. Happy Women’s History Month! On Monday, I reflected on key advice from the women we’ve hosted on Trailblazers, check it out.
Hot off the Pod 🔥🎙️ Anita Kumar: POLITICO’s White House Correspondent
Listen to our latest episode, my conversation with Anita Kumar, White House Correspondent and Associate Editor at POLITICO.
An expert on the institution of the presidency, Anita Kumar is currently covering her third president, Joe Biden, following eight years reporting on Donald Trump and Barack Obama. Prior to moving to POLITICO in 2019, she covered the White House for McClatchy, one of the country’s biggest local news companies — they own 29 papers around the U.S.
She began her career in local and state politics, writing for the Washington Post and the Tampa Bay Times. She’s traveled the world from India with Obama to Afghanistan with Trump. A trailblazer in the newsroom, Anita also became the first Indian American journalist elected to the board of the White House Correspondents' Association.
Read on for excerpts from the podcast!
What are some of the most critical skills you think you (and other journalists) need to cover U.S. Presidents?
You need to learn to be fast and as accurate as possible. It's the same skill that a lot of reporters have when they're covering a debate or a legislative session like I did for so many years, where you cover something and you just have to write quick. Everybody just wants to know what happened. These sound like things that reporters always have to do but there's just no comparison to flying on Air Force One and having 10 minutes to write something. And I'm not kidding — you have to file it on your iPhone because that's the way it's done. The first time when I started covering the President for McClatchy in 2012, my first two weeks were the Democratic and Republican conventions. Then I was supposed to go with President Obama on a trip to be part of the crew that travels with him, and I was going to have to file pool reports for all the other reporters on an iPhone I had just gotten. I had a Blackberry before, and an I was really afraid that that I wasn't going to be able to send updates and information to all these hundreds of reporters waiting to find out what happened but it all worked out.
Do you feel your identity has impacted you in subconscious ways and/or informed the way you go about reporting?
Some reporters report on certain topics because of their backgrounds. But because I cover the White House, it's just a basic thing: covering the government. But I think I come to it with a different perspective.
We just did this exercise at POLITICO a couple weeks ago about diversity. And I remember being in this group with a bunch of other journalists, and one of them said that they'd never been in a room where they felt different from other people. She was a white woman. And I’ve been thinking about that for a couple weeks now because I've never been in a room where I felt the same as everyone. Even if you're with another Indian American or South Asian, it's probably like one other person. I've felt that my whole life so I think that perspective is: you do think of that in the back of your head all the time when you're thinking about covering different people, especially those who don’t always get their voices heard.
I will say that there's one thing has been interesting with Donald Trump — he really tried to make inroads with Indian Americans. I've actually written a lot of stories about it. I think it was news-worthy and there was a lot to write about and so I'm glad I did. But I clearly was more interested because of my identity. And I was fortunate enough to go with President Obama to India when he went for Republic Day. And I went with President Trump to India last year which I can't believe because it was right before coronavirus. It was actually a year ago this week, and I was in the world's biggest cricket stadium with 110,000 Indians who weren't wearing masks because we didn’t know coronavirus was a thing yet.
Catch the full episode here, and stay tuned for our next episode with Venture Capitalist, Sheel Mohnot!
Catching Fire 🚀 what we’re following 👀
🇺🇸 In Politics
Neera Tanden loses her nomination for Head of the Office of Management and Budget. Is Biden’s Associate Attorney General nominee, Vanita Gupta, next?
My take: This isn’t the first time tweets = trouble. Back in 2014, during Dr. Vivek Murthy’s first go-around at the Surgeon General role, he suffered fierce opposition after calling gun violence a public health issue in a tweet. The NRA nearly tanked his confirmation. It’s likely social media scrutiny will become a focal point going forward — whether it’s based in real reason or a tool used by political opponents to oust unfavorable nominees.
🌎 Scenes from South Asia
India’s Farmers Protest recently passed the 100-day mark and TIME featured the women on the frontlines. Meanwhile, Bangladesh is South Asia’s rising star, breaking from its UN categorization as a “Least-Developed Country” (LDC). It’s a case study in a new, productive model for economic development:
Shop South Asian 🛍️ Spotlight: Desi is Me
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From HQ: We’re hosting a member mixer for entrepreneurs in our community. Email shopsouthasian@gmail.com to join.
Stream South Asian 🎵
Our Spotify playlist featuring emerging South Asian artists.
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