During Friday’s White House press conference, deputy press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that attempts to privately fund White House tours may not be “technically possible.”
“As you know, there’s a move afoot by some of the president’s critics to collect private donations to keep the White House tours form being cancelled because of the sequester,” Fox News Channel’s Wendell Goler said to Earnest. “Is that technically possible?”
“I don’t know if it’s technically possible,” Earnest said. “My guess is that it’s not.”
On Thursday afternoon, Fox News hosts Eric Bolling and Sean Hannity both announced that they would privately donate money to keep White House tours open for one week. (RELATED: Can the tours be saved by third parties?)
Their offer followed an earlier announcement by the White House that all tours would be indefinitely suspended beginning March 9.
The White House has blamed sequestration for the decision.