President Barack Obama blamed Republicans in Congress for putting the country on the brink of financial disaster in a Tuesday press conference about the government shutdown that clocked more than an hour — but that wasn’t enough time for the president to take questions from TV reporters.
Speaker of the House John Boehner’s subsequent press conference, by contrast, ran fewer than 10 minutes.
Obama answered questions from reporters with the AP, Bloomberg, the Huffington Post, Reuters, NPR, New York Times, Financial Times, Roll Call, Agence France-Presse, CBS News (though that was MarK Knoller, who is primarily a CBS Radio reporter) and Real Clear Politics.
Also read: CNN Reporter’s Sharknado Joke Bombs During White House Briefing
Though MSNBC’s Chuck Todd could clearly be seen in the front row, neither he nor any other cable news reporters were able to ask Obama any questions.
Sensing some frustration in the room, Obama remarked at one point that the choice of which reporters to call on was not his, but his press secretary, Jay Carney.
“I’m just going through my list, guys,” he said. “Talk to Jay.”