WASHINGTON–White House Press Secretary Jay Carney commented for the first time on Wednesday about President Obama and Vice President Biden–because of the debt ceiling crisis–skipping a series of fundraisers these past weeks-with Obama not coming to his big Aug. 3 event in Chicago if there is no deal. I had the scoop on this on Monday.
Q: It’s been reported and I think confirmed by the White House that the president and vice president have canceled or postponed some of their fund-raisers over the past week or so to stay here and work on this.
CARNEY: Now we’re — now we’re focused on the important stuff.
Q: Well, let me ask you — yeah, I think a week from tomorrow is the president’s 50th birthday. What are the plans for that day in terms of fund-raisers in Chicago and anywhere else? And is he making any — (inaudible) — at this point to change his schedule on that day in case this goes on?
CARNEY: We have made clear that the president has made a lot of adjustments to his schedule because of the need to work on this problem.
And we make those judgments as this process continues. I don’t have any announcements to make about next week.