Obama’s Plouffe Orders Blackout at Press Club

ABC News’ Teddy Davis and Ferdous Al-Faruque report: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe delivered an "off-the-record" speech at the National Press Club on Feb. 12, 2009, prompting a letter of complaint from the organization’s president. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank (left) confronted Plouffe (right) following his remarks.
Ferdous Al-Faruque/ ABC News David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, drew heat on Thursday when members of the media were barred from reporting on his speech at the National Press Club. "To any media in the room, it’s been requested that these remarks be off the record," announced Rob Manuel, dean of Georgetown’s School of Continuing Education. Plouffe’s refusal to let the press cover his remarks led Politico, the co-sponsor of the rest of the two-day "Transition 2009" conference, to drop its co-sponsorship of the Plouffe portion of the event. "When Politico found out that Plouffe would be off the record, we dropped our sponsorship and John F. Harris withdrew as moderator of the Plouffe event," said Politico spokesperson Kim Kingsley. To showcase his displeasure with Plouffe’s off-the-record policy, the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank donned a sandwich board on which he had written: "unPLOUFFable: what the Plouffe?" Milbank then handed out reporters’ notebooks and pens to the lunch participants as they were walking into the National Press Club’s ballroom, urging them to take notes on Plouffe’s remarks and promising to cite their account of the speech in a future Washington Post column. Plouffe was the event’s lunchtime keynote speaker. The remarks of other participants at Georgetown’s "Transition 2009" event have been on the record. During Thursday’s morning session, Politico chief political correspondent Mike Allen moderated a discussion with former White House chiefs of staff Andy Card, Mack McLarty and John Podesta. Plouffe’s decision to close his remarks to the press prompted a letter of complaint from Donna Leinwand, the president of the National Press Club. Read the full text of the letter here. UPDATE: Plouffe Associate Moves to Quell Press Club Flap On Thursday evening, an associate with Plouffe’s AKPD media firm attempted to quell Plouffe’s flap at the National Press Club by providing ABC News with a copy of a redacted contract signed with Georgetown University on Dec. 19, 2008. The contract stipulates that Plouffe’s "portion of the program will be closed to the media." Read more here.