Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts slammed ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl on Twitter after Karl posted a picture of Roberts without a mask prior to the start of President Trump’s press conference.
In a tweet Monday afternoon following Karl’s knock on Roberts, the Fox News correspondent noted that he put on a mask once the press conference began.
“Facts – I was quietly seated more than 6′ away from the closest person (adhering to CDC social distancing guidelines),” tweeted Roberts. “When the press conference began, I put mask on. So – what, exactly is the basis for this petty effort at shaming????”
Reached for comment, Karl told The Hill that he wasn’t shaming anybody in describing the “extraordinary scene” regarding reporters wearing masks for a presidential press briefing in the Rose Garden.
“It was an extraordinary scene. I wasn’t shaming anybody. I simply tweeted four photos showing just about everybody wearing a mask in the Rose Garden — something we have never seen before,” Karl wrote in an email.
The two were in attendance for the president’s news conference Monday in the Rose Garden, which abruptly ended with Trump refusing to take a question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and blasting CBS’s Weijia Jiang for what he called a “nasty” question.
Joe Concha contributed. Updated at 7:46 p.m.