White House Stands Behind Scandal-Ridden Little League Team

While the president’s new AUMF request dominated Wednesday’s White House daily briefing, another seemingly innocuous, yet fascinating, drama played out under the radar. To the untrained eye, it was just another case of White House reporters trying to get a salable piece of “gotcha” tape, but with the proper guide, it’s an example of the mysterious ways in which canny veteran journalists operate.

It began with a question by CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett, who asked Press Secretary Josh Earnest if President Obama had “any regrets” about hosting the Jackie Robinson West Little League team, which has been stripped of its U.S. championship because coaches and parents violated Little League rules by stacking the team with players from other districts. Earnest responded that the president was “proud” of the kids on the team, and that “some dirty dealing by some adults doesn’t take anything away from the accomplishments of those young men.”

Then, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet employed a trusty technique for getting a question in, the patented “Can I follow up on that topic because if I don’t do it now we will all forget about it like goldfish.” I’ve never used it, because I prefer to take my chances that I’ll get called on, then hit ’em with a three-pack. Also, because the move generally meets with this kind of limited success:

Lynn Sweet: Is he going to take any other steps, Josh? Just to follow up on that one, is he going to do —

Earnest: Lynn, I’ll come back to you. Don’t interrupt.

In case you missed it, the best part of that clip was April Ryan’s reaction to Earnest’s scolding “Don’t interrupt,” which is not how this gambit is usually handled, and which I would recommend no one ever try on April. Usually, the spokesperson will either ignore the interloping question, lay it off with a “We’ll get around the room,” or on rare occasions, actually stop to allow the followup. Those exceptions tend to be made for more well-established legacy media outlets, not the scrappy little guys trying to gobble up a crumb.

Lynn Sweet, though, is well known to the entire Obama team from their days back in Chicago, and on the campaign trail, and so a bit of that familiarity was factored into Earnest’s reaction. True to his word, though, he did go back to Sweet for the last question of the briefing, where this seemingly tangential line of questioning paid off…READ MORE 

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