A group of female White House reporters aired a grievance with the White House communications staff on Twitter on Tuesday, telling the Biden administration that their 7 p.m. press conferences are making “working moms’ job harder,” despite Biden hiring an all-female senior communications team.
“Real conversation happening right now in a mom journalist group: The most mom-heavy White House comms staff keeps scheduling briefings at 7 p.m., squarely in toddler bedtime and it’s making working moms’ job harder,” Ginger Gibson, Deputy Washington editor at NBC News Digital, wrote.
“For reals. Why do they keep doing this?” asked Detroit News Washington bureau chief Melissa Nann Burke.
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Newsy’s Kellan Howell agreed that the White House’s scheduling was “ironic” given this week’s theme is about relief for working families.
Others noted that working dads are hit just as hard by the White House timeline.
“People who cover the WH are almost all entirely in Washington, so time zones aren’t an issue,” Gibson argued on Twitter. “And they’re holding them during primetime news, so not taking that into consideration either. There is zero reason they couldn’t do these during the day. None.”
In March, the president helped push through a $1.9 trillion infectious-disease relief package he said would grant families needed relief during the pandemic, but he did so without Republican support. Lawmakers like Steve Scalise, R-LA, dismissed the so-called American Rescue Plan as a liberal wish list.
Following its passage, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told “Fox News Sunday’s” Chris Wallace that Biden planned to speak on the second part of his relief plan in April.
“He’s going to have more to say later in April about the second part of his recovery plan, which will include a number of the pieces you talked about — health care, child care, addressing that. It’s a crisis right now, the number of women who have left the workplace,” she continued. “The total package, we’re still working out.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
