Hilarity ensued when White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre couldn’t decipher a reporter’s accent, leading to an extended exchange about God of Thunder and Asgardian man Thor for some reason.

At Friday’s press briefing, AFP White House correspondent Sebastian Smith had the briefing room in stitches with his attempt to get KJP to understand his pronunciation of the word “thaw”:

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead.

Q Thank you, Karine. So, when the President of Japan — ears pricked up when he spoke of a thaw or maybe a possible coming thaw with China. A thaw.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Oh, say that one more time.

Q A thaw. Yeah, my accent — T-H-A-W. (Laughter.)

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Oh. (Laughter.)

Q Yeah, I — I forgive you.

Q Thaw.

Q I forgive you. I’m not talking of Thor, the God of whatever, you know. (Laughter.)

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Which is what we heard a lot yesterday.

Q That would have been a hell of a (inaudible). Anyway.

Q The God of Thunder —

Q Yes, yes.

Q — just for the record.

Q So, thaw. Thaw. That sounded like —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: “God of Thunder,” as we’re hearing from the back.

Q Yeah, God of Thunder. Yeah, he had lightning bolts and stuff like that. (Laughter.)

Q Thor.

Q Thaw. I feel like I’m in a “Monty Python” sketch here. (Laughter.) I sort of —

He — he spoke of a thaw, which everyone — everyone’s ears pricked up when he said that.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Oh, a thaw. A thaw.

Q Yes, a thaaww.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Okay. (Laughter.)

Q Can I say it like that? A thaaww.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: A thaaww.

Q A thaaaww.

Okay. (Laughter.) So, there we are.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: There’s a lot happening here, folks. It’s Friday.

Q Okay. It’s Friday.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: It’s Friday.

Q I have a follow-up, by the way. (Laughter.)

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: On the thaaww?

Q Okay, so there we are: the President and his thaw. (Laughter.)

We’ve since learned — today we learned that the CIA director was in China some time before this brief mention of “the word I won’t repeat” in Japan. Is that — are those two things connected? Did the director come back with some news that might make the President think about a thaw?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, as — as it rela- — (laughs) — as it relates to the CIA director’s travel, I would have to refer you to — to the CIA directly to speak to that. I just do- — I’m not going to get into it from here, from the podium, so I would have to refer you to the CIA.

Q Okay. And how about a — how about any — I know you’re going to tell me you got nothing to share, but how m- — how about a phone call with President Xi?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Well, look, the President is looking forward to Pres- — to speaking to President Xi. As you know, they’ve spoken many times in the last two years. Just don’t have anything to read out. When the — the time per- — is appropriate, certainly that conversation will occur.

Watch above via The White House.

The post White House Briefing Room Busts Out Laughing At Confusion Over Reporter’s Accent first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/SEfeRzo