Fox News’ White House correspondent Ed Henry walked out of a White House press briefing Friday after a public snubbing from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. Yesterday, Henry insisted he wasn’t walking out in protest, he just had work to do. But he would have stayed if he had been called on.
On Fox News Radio yesterday, Henry claimed he did not walk out in a pique:
“What really happened was that the briefing went on for about 40 minutes and I didn’t get a question. For whatever reason. …I don’t know why, I guess, maybe he was upset. I wasn’t.”
Henry explained that the briefing was lengthy, started about three hours late, and that he had been overlooked a few times, and so he made the decision to exit the briefing in its last few minutes in order to make a live TV hit with Fox’s The Five.
“I was going to be late,” Henry continued. “I would have stayed longer if Jay had called on me. But he didn’t. I had work to do.”
So even though, as Politico’s Dylan Byers noted, Henry looked “visibly perturbed” just before he walked out, he didn’t leave in protest of not being called on. But he would have stayed if Carney had called on him.
Ed, this is sort of like the lottery. You can only win IF you play. You may not win, ever—no matter how many times you play the numbers. But, it’s a guarantee that you will NOT win if you never play. There’s no certainty that Carney would’ve called on you if you’d stayed, but by leaving, you ensured that you wouldn’t be called on at all. (And I really don’t foresee Mr Carney bothering with you ever again. Although if he does, I certainly hope he embarasses you when he calls on you—something like, “Well before we get started, I know how valuable Ed Henry’s time is so, if the rest of the corps doesn’t mind, I’ll call on him first, okay? Ed? You have a question today or are you too busy to stick around?”)
Perhaps he realizes that he is going to lose his cushy appointment? He can say all he wants on Fox….unfortunately for him, they don’t make the decision as to whether or not he’ll get to ask another moronic question.
That’s his excuse.
Henry… Hate to break it to you, but your quest is over.