Fox News’s John Roberts left Tuesday’s press briefing with Sarah Huckabee Sanders early, quipping on his way out that he would have stayed had the briefing been on-camera.
In an audio released of the full briefing, you can hear deputy press secretary Sanders remark “John Roberts is bored today, he’s headed out.”
“If it were on-camera I might not,” Roberts shot back, chiding Sanders for the decision to hold the briefing off-camera. Reporters in the briefing room let out a chorus of “Oohs”.
The chief White House correspondent for Fox News later said on Twitter that he left to film a live shot, as the press briefing was held off-camera and he could not air anything from it:
Roberts had earlier in the day pointed out that the Trump administration’s last on-camera briefing was weeks ago:
Following a contentious few months between reporters and press secretary Sean Spicer, on-camera briefings have become rare, replaced by off-cameras or even smaller press gaggles.
And White House reporters — most notably CNN’s Jim Acosta — have repeatedly chastised Spicer’s communications shop for scaling back press access just six months into the new administration.
Watch above, via Fox News.
[image via screengrab]
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