Updated: 4:47 p.m.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney struggled today to walk back President Barack Obama’s false statement Monday that it would be “unprecedented” for the Supreme Court to overturn a law “passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”

Carney repeatedly fended off reporters’ questions at his daily briefing about the president’s remark, arguing that Obama meant there were no laws of “national economic significance” that have been overturned by the court in the past 85 years.

And Carney ridiculed anyone who thought otherwise. “A handful of people didn’t understand what he was referring to,” Carney said.

Carney said Obama does not regret using the word “unprecedented” and noted that Obama clarified the remark Tuesday during questioning at an Associated Press conference.