🧵I transcribed the full back-and-forth with KJP and CBS’s @EdOKeefe. It was WILD. You're welcome, America....
O’Keefe: “But, Karine, you’re not answering the — the very basic, direct question!”
Miller: “[Inaudible]”
O’Keefe: “Has the Parkinson’s [inaudible] —”
KJP: “Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Hold on. Wait.”
O’Keefe: “— come to the White House —”
KJP: “— wait, wait, wait a second —”
O’Keefe: “— to —“
KJP: “— wait.”
O’Keefe: “— eight times, or at least once, in regards to the President —”
KJP: ““I just —”
O’Keefe: “— specifically.”
KJP: “— hold on a second.”
O’Keefe: “That much you should be able to answer by this point —”
KJP: “But — no, no, no, no, no, no, —”
O’Keefe: “— after four days of reporting about it.”
KJP: “— no, wait a minute. Calm. Ed, please. A little respect here, please. So, every year, around the President's physical examination, he sees a neurologist. That's three times, right? So, I am telling you that he has seen an neurologist three times while he has been in this presidency. That's what I'm saying.”
O’Keefe: “Here at the White House or Walter Reed?”
KJP: “I'm telling you that he has seen them three times. That is what I'm sharing with you, right? So, every time he has a physical, he has had to see a neurologist.”
KJP: “So, that is answering that question.”
CBS’s @EdOKeefe: “No, it’s not.”
KJP: “No, it is. It is.”
O’Keefe: “Can —”
KJP: “You’re asking me —”
O’Keefe: “— Dr. Kevin Cannard come to the White House —”
KJP: “— I cannot —
O’Keefe: “— to answer questions about the President’s condition?”
KJP: “— but I just — I also said to you — Ed, I also said to you for security reasons we cannot share names. We cannot share names.”
O’Keefe: “You cannot provide names —”
KJP: “We have to —”
O’Keefe: “— of others he would have met with —”
KJP: “— we have to — we cannot —”
O’Keefe: “— but you share names of —”
KJP: “— no, no, no, no —”
O’Keefe: “— if someone came in —”
KJP: “— no, we —”
O’Keefe: “— with regards to the President.”
KJP: “— we cannot — we cannot share names of specialists broadly, from a dermatologist to a neurologist. We cannot share names. There are security reasons we have to —”
O’Keefe: “They’re already on the White House visitor logs.”
KJP: “— we have to protect —”
O’Donnell: “It’s public.”
O’Keefe: “It’s public.”
KJP: “— I understand that.”
O’Keefe: “I looked it up before I came out here.”
KJP: “I hear you. I —”
O’Keefe: “It is right there for anyone to see.”
KJP: “Ed, I hear you. I cannot from here confirm any of that because we have to keep their privacy. I think they would appreciate that too. We have to give them —”
O’Keefe: “Who would? The patient or the doctor?”
KJP: “— we have to keep their privacy.”
O’Donnell: “It’s public. It is public.”
O’Keefe: “It’s public information.”
KJP: “I — I — I hear you.”
O’Donnell: “It’s listed that he went to the residence.”
CBS’s @EdOKeefe: “And you’re going to allow this to fester —”
KJP: “I — I — guys —”
O’Keefe: “— longer, Karine —”
KJP: “— guys — guys —”
O’Keefe: “— unless the White House answers —
KJP: “— guys —”
O’Keefe: “— the question.”
KJP: “— hold on a second. There's no reason to get back and — go back and forth and be this aggressive.”
O’Keefe: “Well, we’re miffed around here about how information's been shared with the press corps around here.”
KJP: “What do you — what do you missed [sic] about? What do you missing [sic] about?”
O’Keefe: “Well, he just asked about.”
KJP: “What do you — and then every time, I come back and I answer the question that you guys ask.”
CBS’s @EdOKeefe: “And if you answered it correctly, you didn’t have to come back and clean up [inaudible] —”
KJP: “I never answered the question incorrectly. That is not true. I was asked about a medical exam. I was asked about a physical that was in the line of question that I answered and I said no, he did not have a medical exam and I still stand that — by that. In fact, the President still stands by that. He had a verbal check-in. That is something that the President has a couple times a week, a couple times a week.”
O’Keefe: “Now, in regards to Dr. Kevin Cannard —”
KJP: “Ed, I am telling right now that I am not sharing — confirming names from here. It is a security reasons. I am not going to do that, Ed. It doesn't matter how hard you push me, it doesn't matter how angry you get with me. I'm not going to confirm a name. It doesn't matter if it's even in the log. I am not going to do that from here. That is not something I am going to do. What I can share with you is that the President has seen a neurologist for his physical three times. Three times And it is in the reporting that we share — a comprehensive reporting. As a matter of fact, it's more than what the last guy shared, and it is in line with what George George W. Bush did. It's in line with what Obama did. And so, it is comprehensive. It is out there. I just read a quote from it, but I am not — I am not going to devolve somebody's name or confirm someone. I'm not going to do that. That is as is privacy for that person. I'm not gonna do that. It doesn't matter how hard you push me, it doesn't matter how angry you get with me from here. I'm just not going to do that. It is inappropriate. It is not acceptable, so I'm not going to do it.” (4/4)
Moments later, when talking to Reuters, Jean-Pierre RIPPED CBS's O'Keefe for being “unfair” and that yelling at her was “not okay”. KJP sounded like she was almost in tears:
“I do want to — I just want to take a step back for a second because I do take offense to what Ed alluded to. You know, come out here every day there's a press briefing. And we do our best to give you the information that we have at the time. That's what we do and we understand that freedom of the press — we respect the freedom of the press. You heard me talk about this last week. We — I appreciate the back and forth that we all have. It is — I try to respect you and I hope you try to respect me and we literally do everything that we can — my team does everything that we can to make sure we get the answers to you. That's what we do. And sometimes, we disagree. Sometimes, we are not in agreement. But you know what? That's democracy. That is what is important — to have that healthy back-and-forth and so, to say that I'm holding information or allude to anything else is not unfair — is really, really unfair. I think people who are watching and have been watching this briefing for this past week could say that we are doing our best in this briefing to provide by the information that we have. And I will admit — I will be the first one to admit sometimes, I get it wrong. I at least I admit that. At least I admit that. And sometimes I don't have the information and I will always, always admit that, but I do take offense to what was just happening at the beginning of this briefing. It's not okay.”
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