White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre hosted a private White House briefing in the press briefing room Thursday night for parents, parenting writers and influencers.
She invited Adm. Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health, and Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House coronavirus coordinator, to discuss the ongoing baby formula shortage and COVID-19 vaccines.
The event took place after the White House had called a ‘lid’ for the day – indicating reporters can leave – and participants refused to answer questions from the press.
‘I’m not answering any questions. Thank you. Nice to meet you, though,’ Levine told journalists as she left the room, after posing for photos with several of the babies parents had brought along.
Levine was asked twice about when President Joe Biden was made aware of the baby formula crisis and who briefed the president on it.
‘Any US government official who stands at that podium should be ready to take any question from any member of our press corps – particularly one that gets at accountability on an issue of importance to the whole country,’ White House Correspondents’ Association President Steven Portnoy told DailyMail.com when asked about the incident.
New York Post reporter Steven Nelson was on-hand for an unscheduled White House briefing in the briefing room for parents, parenting writers and influencers. He reported through the White House pool that Dr. Rachel Levine refused to answer reporters’ questions – but did take photos with babies
NBC’s White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell saw the briefing come over the White House pool feed. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (left) hosted the briefing after the White House had called a ‘lid,’ which alerts reporters that they can go home for the day
Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove also snapped a picture of the unscheduled briefing, which showed Adm. Rachel Levine at the podium and Karine Jean-Pierre at her side
Previously, Jean-Pierre struggled to give reporters a timeline on when the president found out that baby formula would be in short supply.
Biden told reporters earlier this month he had learned of the problem in early April.
Jha and Levine did do Q&A with the bloggers and representatives from parents’ groups.
The baby blogger briefing wasn’t on the official schedule and wasn’t livestreamed on the White House site.
Reporters who were still at their White House workspaces stumbled upon it.
‘After hosting faux press briefing on baby formula crisis, Admiral Levine posted with babies at WH podium,’ tweeted The New York Post’s Steven Nelson, sharing an image of Levine chatting up a mom and a baby.
New press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s earlier briefing including several contentious back-and-forths, mainly over President Joe Biden’s COVID testing regimen
Nelson, who was serving as the day’s pool reporter for print publications, sent reports out saying that Levine refused to do Q&A with the journalists in the room.
Journalists cover the White House by having a smaller ‘pool’ of reporters send out reports to everyone else.
Earlier, the new press secretary had several contentious back-and-forths with reporters during her scheduled briefing – including on when President Joe Biden was last tested for COVID-19.
Biden was with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Truduea several days last week before Trudeau tested positive for the coronavirus.
Biden’s top medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, also has COVID currently.
Later, NBC News reported that Biden has twice tested negative for COVID since last week’s Summit of the Americas, citing ‘a source familiar with the matter.’
