The White House press corps came under searing criticism for asking about the fiscal cliff immediately after President Obama's statement about gun control on Wednesday.
Obama appeared before the White House press corps on Wednesday to discuss new initiatives in the wake of Friday's tragedy. Twenty-seven victims, including twenty young children, were shot and killed in a horrific shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Obama announced that he was putting Vice President Biden in charge of a multi-agency review of gun policy, and that he wanted proposals by January.
When he opened up the floor to questions, the first one came from the Associated Press' Ben Feller and focused on the fiscal cliff. Twitter lit up with reactions.
Why does the first question have to be about fiscal cliff? Keep the focus on GUNS.
— Emma Gilbey Keller (@emmagkeller) December 19, 2012
The second question came from The Wall Street Journal's Carol Lee, who asked a follow-up to Feller's question. Observers continued to sound off on Twitter when the third question, which came from Politico, also concerned the fiscal cliff.
Another question on fiscal cliff. WTF White House press corps??
— Emma Gilbey Keller (@emmagkeller) December 19, 2012
Reporter David Jackson finally got the discussion back to guns about fifteen minutes into the conference, asking Obama, "What makes you think this is going to be different given the passage of time and the political power of [gun rights organizations] like the NRA?"
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