White House press secretary Jen Psaki fielded a question during the daily press briefing Tuesday about President Joe Biden bringing a cat to the White House.
“First off, my actual question is: We’ve heard a lot about dogs; we were promised a White House cat,” the reporter asked. “What happened to that?”
“Where is the cat? Today is a good day for the cat. I don’t have any update on the cat. We know the cat will break the Internet, but I don’t have any update on its status,” Psaki playfully responded.
WATCH:
Reporter: "We were promised a White House cat, what happened to that?"
Psaki: "Where is the cat? Today is a good day for the cat. I don't have any update on the cat. We know the cat will break the internet." pic.twitter.com/6WYlhXrLwi
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) March 9, 2021
The question, notably soft, highlights the media’s treatment of the Biden administration, particularly when compared to their treatment of the Trump administration and other former Republican administrations.
Former Trump-era White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany recently highlighted such differences. “It’s different in a big way,” she outlined last week on Fox News’ “The Faulkner Focus.” “I’ll never forget watching one of the early press briefing and [Psaki] was asked about the Antifa riots and I believe said she hadn’t spoken to the president about that and they let her move on.”
“Whereas, if I would have been asked that about violence on the other side of the aisle, that wouldn’t have been an answer that flew. Nor should it have. And so I think just the standards are different,” McEnany explained.
“A Democrat woman standing at that podium would never have had a Playboy reporter in the back of the room shouting at her as she left and nor should a Democrat woman ever have to face that and nor should a Republican woman,” the former press secretary added. “There is a modicum of respect that I think reporters and those at the podium and in a political role people should have for one another.”
Dana Perino, who served under President George W. Bush as White House press secretary, commented that conservative women know they’re “not gonna get the glowing profiles — you just get your s*** done.”
Psaki, of course, takes on straight questions from the press, too, but seems to be awarded leeway from the media that is not afforded to Republican administrations. For example, Psaki has frequently told reporters she’ll “circle back” when she can’t answer a question.
McEnany, who was once heckled by a reporter during a briefing, emphasized on Fox News airwaves that she didn’t have the luxury of constantly telling reporters she’d “circle back,” instead putting in hours of research before briefings.
“It is a very hard job. But that being said, we took great pains in our administration to do hours and hours and hours of research beforehand, days sometimes, calling [former Secretary of Health and Human Services)] Secretary [Alex] Azar sometimes, calling [former Department of Justice spokesperson] Kerri Kupec over at the Justice Department to get answers,” she explained.
“And the great thing about being in the Trump White House was I always knew where my boss stood,” McEnany continued. “Unlike other press secretaries that maybe didn’t have walk-in privileges to the Oval, I could walk in at any time. I always knew where he stood. Before every press conference, I would go in with a list of items that I thought the press would ask and go through one by one. I always knew where his head was at, so I didn’t have to do a ton of circling back because President Trump gave a lot of access to me.”