For weeks, we White House reporters have had nothing to do but wait.
Tuesday marked 40 days since the last White House press briefing.
Karoline Leavitt held two after returning from maternity leave, but by her final month on the job they’d stopped altogether. When she put in her two-weeks notice, we were sure she’d want to brief one last time. Each morning, the second the White House schedule hit my inbox, I scrolled straight to the bottom, where the briefings are usually listed. Day after day: nothing.
Her last day came and went. She never said goodbye from the podium.
It’s true the president is his own best spokesperson — he takes plenty of questions. But a briefing brings a different buzz to the White House. Reporters line up hours early, claiming their spots with a stool or a bag. Three years in, and I still get butterflies that don’t settle until it’s over.
So I gasped Tuesday, sitting in the quiet briefing room, when another reporter leaned over and said, “There’s a briefing Thursday.”
Sure enough, hours before the vice president was set to take the podium, the line had already formed — a stool here, a bag there, holding places since early morning. I had to wiggle my way through the crowd spilling back into the press workspaces. A reporter behind me took pity and loudly asked everyone to make room so I could get to my seat.
The anticipation only grew as each minute past 1 p.m. ticked by. The TV reporters lined the front of the room, doing their live hits all at once, previewing what was to come.
At 1:37 p.m., we got a two-minute warning. A hush fell over the room.
But five minutes passed. Still no vice president.
“This is ridiculous!” I said, breaking the silence. The reporters around me chuckled. The last forty days, summed up in five minutes of purgatory.
And then, right on cue, the door opened and the vice president stepped up to the podium.
