pretty extraordinary times to be covering an extraordinary white house. >> well, i do believe that the congressional deadline is a powerful force here. the president could have cleared this up instantly in the day after he made the first tweeted assertion. they chose not to do that for whatever reason. and because of that deadline, let me just say that initially the plan for the off camera gaggle which is a shortened form of a briefing, a gaggle is a journalism term of art -- >> it's supposed to be the warm-up for the on camera briefing so they get a sense of where all of you guys were -- where all of us are in our heads, what stories we're trying to cover. that's usually all you get these days, right? >> yes. and in this instance though they did make it on audio. i said to colleagues i wonder if it's because they're going to tell us something that they do want on the record, even if it's not televised. and shortly before the scheduled gaggle briefing, i went looking for someone who could confirm