"All those white guys"

Tony Snow's last televised press briefing.

Published September 12, 2007 6:55PM (EDT)

In what is likely to be his last televised White House press briefing, Tony Snow engaged in an extended debate with a reporter today about whether the president's military commitment to Iraq is "open-ended."

The reporter's first name was Bill, and one of Bill's colleagues cut in to pursue a different line of questions. When she did, she mistakenly referred to Snow as "Bill," too. Correcting herself, she said, "What, what -- I mean, not Bill. I'm sorry. Anyway, Tony, what . . . " At which point Snow interrupted her to say, "All those white guys."

Update/Correction: In an earlier version of this post, we said that Snow followed up his remark by saying, "I did not say that, OK?" Having now viewed the videotape, we see that the reporter, not Snow, made that comment. We also see that the reporter who mixed up Bill's name and Snow's was April Ryan, an African-American woman who reports for American Urban Radio Networks.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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