Passing along some highlights from the gaggle with Hogan Gidley below. Also, note that President Trump tweeted about being briefed on the Pensacola shooting.
Gidley referred reporters to the Department of Defense when asked whether the Pensacola shooting may have been linked to terrorism. He also declined to comment on reports about the shooter being a Saudi national.
When asked to comment on the shooting generally, Gidley replied: “Anytime these horrific tragedies occur, your heart goes out to the families involved.” Gidley called it a “sad, sad day” and an “unacceptable” tragedy.
Q: How is the White House going to respond to the House Judiciary Committee today?
“I’m not going to get ahead, obviously, of how we are going to respond. I do think it’s somewhat interesting though that Nancy Pelosi said to move forward with articles of impeachment even though we hadn’t responded to the letter.”
He also said it was “all about politics” for Pelosi and urged Congress to “get back to work for the American people.”
He said he expected the White House to respond to the letter by the end of the day (the deadline is 5 p.m. ET).
Q: Is the president aware of what Rudy Giuliani is doing in Ukraine?
“That’s a question between Rudy and the president.”
Q: Is he comfortable with what Rudy is doing in Ukraine?
“I haven’t spoken with him about that directly but obviously Rudy Giuliani can speak for himself, he’s the president’s personal attorney.”
Q: So he’s still the president’s personal attorney?
“To my knowledge, yes.”
He was also asked about a recent Bloomberg story about Vice President Mike Pence’s meeting regarding Venezuela, but referred questions to the State Department.