The controversy over the Huffington Post planted question at Obama's news conference Tuesday isn't going away.
At the White House press briefing yesterday, reporters grilled Robert Gibbs about it.
White House Transcript
Q All right. I've got a procedural question about yesterday's news conference. What led to your decision to plant a designated hitter right here to ask the President a question? And what kind of a message do you think that sends to the American people and to the world about the kind of free-flow and pure questioning that's been expected at presidential news conferences?
MR. GIBBS: Well, I think it did nothing more than underscore that free-flow. Peter, that was a question from an Iranian in Iran, using the same type of manner and method to get that information as, I guess, many of you and virtually every one of your outlets has done, because in this country we enjoy the freedom of the press.
In Iran, as many of you know, your colleagues have been dismissed. They've been kicked out. Some of them have been rounded up. There aren't journalists that can speak for the Iranian people. What the President did was take a question from an Iranian. That's, I think, the very powerful message that that sent just yesterday.
Q Couldn't he have accomplished that without you guys escorting someone through here and planting him the room?
MR. GIBBS: Did you get a question yesterday from an Iranian that you had hoped to asked the President?
Q No, I did not.
MR. GIBBS: Well, then I guess the answer to that would have been, no.
Q Is this going to become a regular feature of President Obama's news conference, that you all are going to bring people in here that you select to ask questions?
MR. GIBBS: Well, let's understand -- let's be clear, Peter. I think you understand this, so -- but I'll repeat it for your benefit. There was no guarantee that the questioner would be picked. There was no idea of what the exact question would be. I'll let you down easily: A number of questions that we went though in prep you all asked. Iran dominated the news conference, not surprisingly. But Peter, I think it was important and the President thought it was important to take a question using the very same methods, again, that many of you all are using to report information on the ground. I don't have any -- I won't make any apologies for that.
Q Can I follow that one up, please?
MR. GIBBS: Sure.
Q Thank you.
MR. GIBBS: Get the mic ready.
Q Aren't you -- you and the President aware that this cast suspicion that all of such questions may be presidentially planted?
MR. GIBBS: Well, you know what? Instead, Lester, of giving you an answer from here, I'll ask that you ask Chuck, Jennifer, Chip, Jake --
Q I'm not throwing suspicion on them; you are.
MR. GIBBS: No, no --
Q I mean, no, no --
MR. GIBBS: I'm sorry. I was -- can I give you 30 seconds to get your question straight?
Q Yes, of course.
MR. GIBBS: Major and others that asked questions yesterday, ask them right now if they knew they were getting a question yesterday -- go ahead, ask one of them. Go ahead.
Q Well, he makes a good point, because --
MR. GIBBS: No, no, I make --
Q -- there are a lot of people out there --
MR. GIBBS: Let me make -- hold on, Chip.
Q -- who incorrectly believe that we ask questions that are preapproved. And doesn't this add --
MR. GIBBS: Do you? Do you?
Q Of course not.
MR. GIBBS: Okay, so how did they get that misperception --
Q But doesn't this add to that perception --
MR. GIBBS: No.
Q -- and doesn't this allow --
MR. GIBBS: Chip, I feel like you have --
Q -- (inaudible) do what we do?
MR. GIBBS: I feel -- hold on, hold on.
Q So you don't know --
MR. GIBBS: Well, let me --
Q You don't know --
MR. GIBBS: Since I'm not a journalist and I play the spokesman on TV, let me answer one of the questions, okay? (Laughter.)
One of the things I love, Lester, is you move the microphone toward your mouth when you laugh as if the sound might not pick that up. (Laughter.) All right. Leaving that aside for a second, leaving that aside for a second --
Q I have one follow-up. (Laughter.)
MR. GIBBS: No, no, I can -- I can't in my wildest dreams believe it's only one, but just hold on --
Q It's only one.
MR. GIBBS: No, no, I know, but let me -- Chip and Chuck have questions that I think are important to answer.
I don't know how that perception comes out there, but I feel confident that if you feel that perception is out there, that you could deal with it. CBS has gotten a question on all four of the news conferences. I don't know if it's been you on all four. Have you ever told us what your question is?
Q Certainly not.
MR. GIBBS: Have you?
Q Of course not.
MR. GIBBS: Have you?
Q Nope.
MR. GIBBS: You've only gotten one, so -- have you? (Laughter.) Peter, have you?
Q Certainly not.
MR. GIBBS: Did Mark know? Did Mark tell us?
Q Certainly not, and neither would I.
MR. GIBBS: Major?
Q No.
MR. GIBBS: Jake?
Q I don't think he would have called on me.
MR. GIBBS: Michael?
Q We didn't get one. We didn't get one.
MR. GIBBS: But did you give us a heads up on your question last time?
Q What do you think? (Laughter.)
MR. GIBBS: There you go. Good answer. I like that. That's actually -- you might get one next time because that was a keen answer. Ann, did you let us know?
Q I think these are rhetorical --
MR. GIBBS: Okay. They are rhetorical questions because they're easily answered.
Q Robert, in a third-world country -- in a third-world country, and we've seen a press conference with --
Q A planted question.
Q -- a planted question, the perception --
MR. GIBBS: The question wasn't planted. That question wasn't planted.
Q Questioner, planted questioner -- the perception, you know, it's something that would have colored the entire --
MR. GIBBS: Chuck, is Richard Engel reporting from Tehran using Twitter?
Q We have a reporter --
MR. GIBBS: Is he?
Q We have a reporter in Tehran.
MR. GIBBS: So Richard is not.
Q Richard is not, no. But have a reporter in Tehran.
MR. GIBBS: But Richard is not using Twitter? Richard is not using information he got from people --
Q Of course, we're using information all over the place, but we usually have live bodies on the ground --
Q But, Robert, as many of us who were on the campaign trail remember, in Iowa, when there were two episodes where candidate Obama's chief rival, Hillary Clinton, was accused of having planted questioners in town halls --
MR. GIBBS: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no --
Q -- it became a question of her authenticity --
MR. GIBBS: No, no, no, no.
Q -- or her ability to handle town halls.
MR. GIBBS: No, no, no, no. Let's be clear. Not that I knew I should call on Major, right? I don't know what -- forget the Iowa outlet -- call on Major, because the question he's going to ask is X, okay? You're saying -- and I will be definitive -- nobody at any outlet has ever told me that they were going to ask a certain question, including the fact that I was going to pick or the President might pick somebody from the Huffington Post to ask a question by an Iranian, but didn't know what the question was.
Q That's a big difference.
Q Why not use a seating chart and just let the President call on who he is, rather than go to specific --
MR. GIBBS: Well, you know --
Q Robert, what are the rules to be followed by the President at the press conference?
MR. GIBBS: What are the rules?
Q Yes.
MR. GIBBS: They're not written. I'm happy -- look, I'm happy to have you guys yell. I'm cool with that.
Q Okay.
MR. GIBBS: You want to do that?
Q Just one more.
MR. GIBBS: No, no. Let's -- you know what? I'll forget where I've gone, right? I'm going to --go ahead, yell a little bit louder so I can almost hardly hear you.
Yes, ma'am.
Q The perception is though, however --
MR. GIBBS: Well --
Q Let me finish, please.
MR. GIBBS: No, no. I'm not even going to let you finish. On the first day in political science class, the teacher says, there's perception, and there's reality.
Q Well, the reality is --
MR. GIBBS: Every one of you all has talked about the reality --
Q -- printed out this --
MR. GIBBS: -- so I'm not going to deal with the perception.
Q Robert, allow me -- please allow me to finish, okay?
MR. GIBBS: We live in America. Speak.
Q Thank you.
MR. GIBBS: There you go.
Q The perception is this is scripted, from the day --
MR. GIBBS: Well, it's wrong.
Q Okay.
MR. GIBBS: It's wrong.
Q But from the day this administration walked in the door, there was a perception that you were calling people, telling them, you will be picked. And that was the perception, and it's out there. And then to put this person from the Huffington Post, it was awkward --
MR. GIBBS: April, you got picked. Did you get told you were going to get picked?
Q I got picked, it was my first White House press conference pick. No, I was not told. I was surprised --
MR. GIBBS: Were you -- did you know what -- did I ask you what question?
Q I don't think you know what I'm going to ask you when I ask questions.
MR. GIBBS: That is more than a safe bet.
Q But how do you decide on that list of people that you're going to say, the President has a list, I'm going to go through that?
MR. GIBBS: It's just a series of educated guesses.
Q Can anyone ask about something that the American people actually care about?
Q They do care about this, Jake. They want to make sure that we are out there being accountable for them. They do want to know.
That was a long and contentious exchange.
Gibbs doesn't get it.
There's a problem with having an obviously planted question in a live presidential news conference.
Obama could have avoided the controversy by simply stating that Nico Pitney would be relaying a question from an Iranian in Iran. Instead, Obama acted like it was a spontaneous moment. It wasn't.
Video and transcript of Pitney and Obama performing.
Gibbs can argue all he wants but it won't change the fact that the planted question was deceptive.
Recall that Gibbs also said Obama didn't bow when he met King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
That was a lie and it was silly for Gibbs to insist that what happened did not. It's also silly for Gibbs to defend how Obama and the White House arranged the question from Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post.
It was a plant. I knew it right away.
Obama needs to be honest with the American people. We don't need political spin.
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