White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday acknowledged that President Barack Obama still "ocassionally falls of the wagon" when it comes to smoking cigarettes.



Gibbs was asked about Obama's smoking at the daily press briefing after the president's medical report released Sunday said that he is using nicotine replacement therapy.

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"He is occassionally falls of the wagon when it comes to that," Gibbs said, adding that Obama "continues to chew nicotine gum."

Obama's opponents and some in the press raised his cigarette smoking as an issue on the campaign trail.



They noted that the president's status as a role model and his White House's push for healthy lifesyles warrant inquiries into his smoking habit.



Last June, Obama gave a similar answer to the press that Gibbs gave Monday. The president called himself a "former smoker" who occasionally "slips up" and has a cigarette, but never in front of his family.

Gibbs said that he does not know when Obama smokes because he is not with the president 24 hours a day.