The Most Ridiculous Phrase Ever Uttered At A White House Briefing

If you watch enough White House briefings, you’re going to hear some ridiculous things (lord knows I’ve said enough of them), but for sheer surreality, it’s tough to beat the follow-up question from Bloomberg’s Roger Runningen at Monday’s briefing. The phrase in question, completely out of context?

“Back to Burger King.”

In a White House briefing dominated by the possibility of military action in Syria and the murderous onslaught of ISIS, the White House press corps didn’t just bring up Burger King, they had to go back to Burger King for some clarification. Earlier in the briefing, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked if Burger King’s (now-announced) plan to purchase Tim Horton’s and move its headquarters to Canada created “urgency” for the President to issue an executive order on corporate inversion. Earnest responded, as expected, with a disclaimer about commnting on a specific transaction, then rattled of several paragraphs of White House boilerplate on inversion.

After several more digressions into trivial matters like Iraq and Syria, Runningen got things back on track. Here’s the destined-for-Moment-of-Zen clip. the context of which doesn’t really help matters:

“Back to Burger King. The administration has made several comments, statements, even speeches against inversions, but there hasn’t been any action taken. Is that the intent, or is that the strategy to produce some sort of chilling effect among the corporate boardrooms?”

What kind of “action” are we talking about here? Sectoral sanctions? Limited airstrikes? (Gasp!) Boots on the ground? Should the President demand that Burger King be deposed in favor of a more inclusive Burger Government? Force then to draw down their stockpiles of BK Zesty Sauce?

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) seems to be suggesting we aid the moderate opposition by fortifying existing White Castles and throwing our support behind a leader named “Wendy.”

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By: Tommy Christopher

Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.