President Obama made a surprise appearance in the White House press room at 11:39 AM ET to talk about the sequester and the economy. The appearance was announced only about 15 minutes beforehand, forcing networks to scramble a bit for their coverage.
Here in New York City, ABC News and CBS News both produced special reports, with Scott Pelley anchoring for CBS and Dan Harris anchoring for ABC, respectively. NBC stayed with “Access Hollywood Live,” though obviously MSNBC carried the statement.
CNN, Fox News and the business networks also carried the statement live.
The first question, as usual, went to the AP’s Julie Pace, who asked whether he takes any responsibility for the current situation.
The Washington Post‘s Zach Goldfarb got the second question, and asked how he plans on passing legislation.
CNN’s Jessica Yellin got question three, and semi-jokingly asked if he could bring the Republicans into the White house and force them to stay until they had a deal. “Jessica, I’m not a dictator…” he replied…
Christi Parsons of the Chicago Tribune got question four, asking about same-sex couples.
NPR’s Ari Shapiro got question five, and brought the conversation back to the sequester.