Wednesday at the White House press briefing, press secretary Josh Earnest had a tense exchange with CBS News’ chief White House correspondent Major Garrett over his refusal to deny that the president has not talked to House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi since last week, when she handed him a resounding defeat on his trade deal by not supporting a key measure for financial aid to displaced workers.
Garrett would not let Earnest get away with trying to “create an artificial filter.”
“All this dancing around as to whether or not there was a phone call to Nancy Pelosi,” he said. “Well look, you created this artificial filter that you are not going to read out. Well we are not asking for read outs. We are asking did he pick up the phone and did he talk to the number one Democratic in the House that just stabbed him in the back on TAA? That’s a real simple question, yes or no.”
Earnest laughed and scoffed as he still refused to say whether Obama has talked to Pelosi as another reporter called out, “We will assume the answer is no,” Earnest said, “Assume whatever you want.”
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