President Barack Obama is asking House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to round up their respective chambers of Congress for a joint session on Sept. 7 where the president will lay out his much-awaited jobs plan.
Boehner replied in a letter requesting that the president speak to Congress on Sept. 8 instead. The major criticism Obama faces holding a joint session “jobs speech” on Sept. 7 is that there is a Republican presidential debate scheduled on the same day.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the GOP debate is “not enough of a reason” for Obama to change the timing of his plans address a joint session. Carney said it’s “coincidental” that both are on the same date, and that people have plenty of television channels to watch both. Carney also said that, even though the GOP debate sponsors claimed the date first, they could reschedule.
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus fired back quickly, tweeting that Obama’s “request to give jobs speech the same night as GOP Presidential debate is further proof this WH is all politics all the time.”
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