Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, hosted a private White House briefing with parents, parenting writers, and influencers Thursday night in the press briefing room.
She invited Adm. Rachel Levine, the United States’ assistant secretary of health, and Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House coronavirus coordinator, to speak about the ongoing baby formula shortage and COVID-19 vaccines.
The event took place after the White House declared a ‘lid’ for the day, indicating that reporters were free to leave, and participants refused to answer press questions.
‘I’m not answering any questions. Thank you. Nice to meet you, though,’ Levine told journalists as she exited the room, after posing for photos with several of the babies parents had brought with them..
Levine was questioned twice about when President Joe Biden was informed of the baby formula crisis and who briefed him 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 for parents, parenting writers, and influencers in the briefing room.
He reported via the White House pool that Dr. Rachel Levine refused to answer reporters’ questions – but did pose for pictures with babies.
Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove also photographed the unscheduled briefing, which featured Adm. Rachel Levine at the podium and Karine Jean-Pierre by her side.
Previously, Jean-Pierre had difficulty providing reporters with a timeline for when the president learned that baby formula would be in short supply.
Biden told reporters earlier this month that he first became aware of the problem in early April.
Jha and Levine did a Q&A with bloggers and representatives from parent organizations.
The baby blogger briefing was not scheduled and was not livestreamed on the White House website.
It was discovered by reporters who were still working at the White House.
‘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.
Nelson, who was serving as the day’s pool reporter for print publications, reported that Levine refused to do a Q&A with the journalists present.
Journalists cover the White House by having a small ‘pool’ of reporters distribute reports to everyone else.
Earlier, during her scheduled briefing, the new press secretary had several heated exchanges with reporters, including one about when President Joe Biden was last tested for COVID-19.
Last week, Biden spent several days with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before Trudeau tested positive for the coronavirus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s top medical adviser, also has COVID.
Later, NBC News reported that Biden had tested negative for COVID twice since last week’s Summit of the Americas, citing “a source familiar with the matter.”