April Ryan, a White House correspondent for the American Urban Radio Network got into a war of words with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs during a press briefing on Thursday.
The discussion centered on Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary. Ryan immediately got Gibbs’ goad by insinuating that Democrats and Republicans alike believe that Rogers overshadowed Michelle Obama at the State Dinner by acting like “the belle of the ball.”
Gibbs was clearly annoyed and did everything in his power to blow off Ryan’s continued line of questioning. At one point he said, “April, April, calm down. Just take a deep breath for one second. Now see? This happens with my son. He does the same thing.”
Ryan calmly responded, “Don’t play with me. I’m being serious. Do not blow it off.”
Gibbs replied, “I’m not…And I’m giving you a serious answer. Was she at the dinner? Yes. She’s the social secretary.”
Ryan came back with, “Social secretaries are not guests of the dinner.”
The final assault came when Gibbs offered, “She has the primary responsibility for running the dinner. I’m going to get back to weightier topics like 98,000 men and women in Afghanistan.”
The briefing has not yet been updated to the White House website. It should be interesting to see if the entire transcript is provided for public viewing.
We’ve only provided a few of the highlights. Check out the entire exchange on the video below and do let us know what you think. Was Gibbs out of line or did Ryan have it coming?