New York Post reporter Steven Nelson lashed out at Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday after the White House press secretary declined to call on him during a briefing. As Jean-Pierre tried to address another member of the press after telling Nelson she wouldn’t be taking his question, Nelson exclaimed, “You should be ashamed of that! That shows disrespect to a free and independent media, to blacklist one of our country’s largest and widely read newspapers, Karine.” In a tweet later that afternoon, Nelson claimed that Jean-Pierre last took a question from him in May, around the time that the pair clashed over the White House’s pre-screening process for members of the press. That disagreement was sparked by the Post being excluded from a White House event, according to Nelson. Since taking on the role in May 2022, Jean-Pierre has also dealt with interruptions from Today News Africa blog owner Simon Ateba, whose antics led to a warning from the White House press office.
The @NYPost is our country's oldest daily newspaper. We have 4th-largest print circulation and only NY Times has more web traffic@PressSec last called on me in May, and on a colleague in July. The May exchange was also about press freedom issues: https://t.co/lNhoE8KSfDhttps://t.co/4FdRDZvlQ3
