White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday defended the decision to hold fewer press briefings under the Trump administration, saying neither she nor President Donald Trump wants to make “stars out of people that want to become contributors on CNN.”

It has been over a month since the White House last held a briefing.

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And there haven’t been any briefings since the government shutdown began shortly before Christmas. Sanders (pictured above left) has only held two briefings since November 27.

Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to share his explanation for the reduced number of briefings.

He wrote, “The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the ‘podium’ much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, fake news!”

It’s no secret that Sanders, and even Trump, have clashed repeatedly during briefings and press conferences with several media members — most notably CNN’s Jim Acosta.

The White House temporarily revoked Acosta’s press credentials after his controversial conduct during a fiery briefing with Trump in November.

Acosta initially sought to “challenge” the president on factual matters by giving his own personal opinion about the Central American migrant caravan that was traveling toward the U.S. at that time.

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Acosta’s showboating behavior and propensity for passing along his personal opinions as facts during briefings has been well-documented.

American Urban Radio Networks correspondent April Ryan, for her part, became a CNN analyst in 2017 after she engaged in tense clashes with White House officials.

Sanders told the Fox News morning program “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday that she didn’t give many formal briefings anymore because Trump “doesn’t like the decorum in the White House.”

“We’re in the business of getting information to the American people, not making stars out of people that want to become contributors on CNN, and that is a lot of times what we see take place in the briefing room,” Sanders said.

She also reacted to the White House Correspondents Association’s (WHCA) complaint against the White House for holding fewer briefings.

“This retreat from transparency and accountability sets a terrible precedent. Being able to question the press secretary or other senior government officials publicly helps the news media tell Americans what their most powerful representatives are doing in their name,” WHCA President Oliver Knox said in a statement.

Related: Mainstream Media’s Coverage of Trump Was 90 Percent Negative in 2018

But Sanders argued it is “absolutely laughable” to claim that she, other White House officials, and the president don’t make themselves available to the media.

“I stopped last night after I finished an interview where I took more questions from a gaggle [of] reporters standing outside [the] building behind me,” Sanders noted. “I’m sure I will do that in a few minutes. The president takes questions nearly every single day from reporters.”

Former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer also defended the decrease in formal White House briefings during an interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”

“Sarah doesn’t have to go out there and do a briefing if the president’s engaging with the press on an almost daily basis. I think the press briefing is to do so in lieu of that, so they’re making the right call on this,” Spicer said.

“And the second part the president brought up is that I think that the briefing turned into a circus, where you created a bunch of YouTube stars, that were B-rate reporters to begin with, and had gotten no recognition in the past,” Spicer added in part.

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