Trump Pulls Fast One, Doesn’t Take Any Questions At Last-Minute White House ‘Press Briefing’
The White House pulled an okey doke on the press Thursday afternoon.
Following Nancy Pelosi’s selection as Speaker of the House as a new Democratic majority was sworn into the House of Representatives, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced a last-minute press briefing in the White House, literally giving reporters less than five minutes notice.
There will be a briefing in the WH briefing room at 4:10pm today.
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 3, 2019
Showing up late to the briefing, Sanders told the gathered press that she was honored to introduce President Donald Trump to the briefing room. This represented the first time he had made a physical appearance in the room during a called press briefing.
The president began by congratulating Pelosi before introducing a group of bald guys who were apparently representing Border Patrol and approve of the president’s border policies. He then brought up National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, who expressed his full-throated support for the border wall.
Trump introduces National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, who cuts a promo in support of a border wall pic.twitter.com/BdmHj1DtFv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 3, 2019
Once Trump turned to his Border Patrol guests, MSNBC cut away and went back to their regular programming. Meanwhile, CNN and Fox News stuck with live coverage of the briefing room.
After President Trump step away from the lectern and hands it over to Border Patrol, MSNBC cuts away from the press briefing while CNN and Fox News stick with it. pic.twitter.com/oyysDoQBdd
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) January 3, 2019
The president then followed this up by saying the same-old-same-old about the need for a border wall as we are roughly two weeks into the government shutdown over wall funding. Then, with that, Trump walked out, along with Sanders, the bald guys, and the rest of the president’s entourage without taking one question.
An incensed press corps began shouting after Trump, asking him if he seriously wasn’t going to take any questions from them. One female reporter made the following remark: “The point of the briefing room is to take questions!”
As Trump walks out of the White House briefing room — his first appearance in the room as president — without taking any questions, reporters shout out after him.
"The point of the briefing room is to take questions!" one reporter yells. pic.twitter.com/RULW94pZpU
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) January 3, 2019
Immediately after the non-briefing, CNN’s Brianna Keilar pointed out that the White House had pulled a “stunt” on the media. “This isn’t a briefing,” she added.
CNN White House reporter Kaitlin Collins, who was in the room during the president’s performance, said that “it certainly wasn’t a press briefing” despite what Sanders had stated in her announcement. Furthermore, Collins noted that she couldn’t remember another press secretary ever coming into the briefing room without taking any questions.
“The only thing that it can really remind you of the first time when Sean Spicer was press secretary and the day after the president’s inauguration when they summoned reporters pretty abruptly,” Collins declared. “He came out here and shouted about the president’s crowd size saying it was the biggest size ever and this was not a press briefing.”
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
It was a briefing. It was not a Q&A. Get it? “Briefing: An act or instance of giving precise instructions or essential information.” See any mention of questions being asked in Webster’s definition?