Team Obama's spokesman were testy on Tuesday after being challenged by the press in their daily messaging about the allegedly awful pay gap between men and women. In the briefing today, Andrew Johnson at The Corner noted Carney lashed out at Jeff Mason of Reuters when the reporter suggested "outside economists say that the data the president is using, the 77-cent phrase, is wrong."
"To say, 'economists.' I mean, from Reuters, I would expect something a little more precise,” Carney snapped. Communications director Jennifer Palmieri also attacked the White House press on Tuesday. (Video below)
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Carney was also confronted three times by ABC's Jonathan Karl about how the private sector "pay gap" is intolerable, but the White House pay gap using the same measurements is acceptable. Carney went into a long digression about how the president is hiring women in junior positions so he can promote them later (but 2016 is not that far away).
Palmieri took to Twitter to mock the front row of the briefing room as male-dominated (and therefore somehow unable to cover the pay gap fairly):
Love all these guys, but note that 6 of 7 news orgs in front row sent men to ask @pressec abt the problem of gender pay inequity.
— Jennifer Palmieri (@JPalm44) April 8, 2014
Several tweeters pointed out that the press secretary and the president are also males. I found this when Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard called it out with great resonance (Palmieri worked for Edwards for President in 2004 and 2008, after eight years in Bill Clinton's White House, including deputy press secretary in the last three years):
I do love John Edwards' former spokesperson lecturing people on sexism! https://t.co/NFT1epPV9h @guybenson @gabrielmalor
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) April 8, 2014
