White House press secretary Jay Carney called a question from a reporter "lame" about President Obama's seeming ambivalence toward departing Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius before praising her openly Friday.
Sebelius was not mentioned in Obama's April 1 speech trumpeting the Affordable Care Act.
Carney also snapped at the press last week when a Reuters reporter asked about questionable gender pay stats touted during the White House press conference.
Full exchange:
JARED RIZZI: The president, you said, knew in early March that this transition would be happening. The president earlier today was effusive in his praise for Secretary Sebelius, but Secretary Sebelius was not at the podium nor was she mentioned in the remarks on April 1 when the president took what a lot of us described as a victory lap, saying 7-point-something million Americans at the time ... Was that --
JAY CARNEY: Secretary Sebelius was at the event. The president was there only with the vice-president behind the podium, and I think you heard from the president --
RIZZI: Members of Congress who --
CARNEY: Jared. Honestly. I think you heard from the President of the United --
RIZZI: Well, I didn't know --
CARNEY: Boy, that's pretty lame. The president, I think, gave you plenty of sound today on his feelings about Secretary Sebelius' service, so you got it from him, and you got it pretty clearly.