Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas took President Obama’s spokesperson Robert Gibbs on a questioning drive. Helen is worried about the White House’s lack of apathy towards the public health insurance option. So the frank and blunt Helen who has covered the administrations of nine presidents in a career spanning nearly sixty years, took Obama’s spokesperson to task. When Helen felt that Robert hadn’t given a satisfactory answer and neither did she see any commitment too from his side, so she gave him another chance to speak up or deny it out-right. She asked, “Has the president given up on the public option?” she inquired from her seat.

Noting that she’s asked the same question in many different ways many times, Gibbs says, “I apparently don’t answer it to your satisfaction.” Thomas replies, “That’s right.” Then she says, “I want your conscience to bother you.” “I — I’ll — I’ll give you the same answer that I gave you unsatisfactorily for many of those other days,” Gibbs offered. “It’s what the president believes in –” “Is he going to fight for it or not?” Thomas snapped. “We’re going to work to get choice and competition into health-care reform” was Gibbs’s vague response.