Harper Neidig at The Hill reports that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff issued a fake press release from Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday with the headline “Media Advisory: Speaker Ryan to Hide from Reporters Today.”
Pelosi aide Drew Hammill, who was her press secretary when Pelosi was speaker, wisecracked:
Speaker Paul Ryan will not be available to answer your questions today about his surrender to Donald Trump. Speaker Ryan has cancelled his regular Wednesday press conference so you don’t ask him about Donald Trump’s racist commentary against a federal judge, and why, ahead of their national security agenda rollout tomorrow, the House GOP wants to hand the nuclear codes to a person who engages in textbook racism.
See the tweet:
Oh yeah, that genius is definitely worth the $172,000 a year.
The speaker’s office cancelled a media Q&A on Wednesday due to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s speech to a joint session of Congress.
Ryan already held a press conference on Tuesday ostensibly on poverty, and “instead faced a barrage of questions regarding Trump's remarks about the Mexican heritage of the judge overseeing lawsuits against Trump University.” Ryan said "Claiming a person can't do a job because of their race is sort of like a textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed."
Ryan's office fired back Wednesday night in a statement. “On Thursday the speaker will tape an interview with ABC for its Sunday show and do an interview with Hugh Hewitt. He also held a press conference on Tuesday. In total, the speaker will have done eight interviews this week, including appearing on two Sunday shows," Ryan's press secretary AshLee Strong said. "It’s questionable whether the Minority Leader could get invited on even one."
That's a little harsh...just because it's a fact that Paul Ryan has made 13 Sunday show appearances since the start of 2015 and Pelosi only appeared once doesn't mean she can't get invited. She might just be hiding from reporters.
