White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office did not object to Obama addressing a joint session of Congress on Sept. 7 until after the White House went public with the request.
"We had a conversation yesterday morning with the Speaker's office at a high level here in the White House and proposed the date of Wednesday [Sept. 7] and the time, and they didn't raise an objection. If they had raised an objection we wouldn't have gone forward with that date," said Pfeiffer on MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" on Thursday.
The requested date and time conflicted with a previously scheduled major Republican presidential debate, spurring a public spat Wednesday between the White House and the Speaker.
Pfeiffer repeated that no objections were raised, but he would not elaborate on the specifics of what Boehner said in the meeting.
The conflict was resolved Wednesday night when White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement that Obama had agreed to address Congress on Thursday, Sept. 8, as the Speaker requested.
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