On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015

No healthcare questions at Obama presser

President Barack Obama sustained an hour-long press conference today without a single question about his signature healthcare law and the glitches that continue to plague the insurance exchanges -- a point that frustrated several conservatives.

"Explain to me how in a dozen questions the second biggest story of the week, the healthcare.gov debacle, doesn’t even come up," Brendan Buck, the press secretary for House Speaker John Boehner, asked in an email to POLITICO.

(PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)

"Questions from WH press corps are pathetic," Brit Hume, the Fox News analyst tweeted. "As of this moment, not a single tough or challenging inquiry."

The criticism invited some blowback form Democrats, including former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, who tweeted, "Hey Republicans, maybe they'd ask about Obamacare if you didn't do such a great job pushing that shutdown for no discernible reason message."

(WATCH: Obama’s Tuesday press conference)

Similarly, Slate's Dave Weigel wrote: "Hey, maybe the press would have asked some Obamacare glitch questions if there wasn't a giant f--king shutdown happening."

"Oh please," Michael Goldfarb, the neoconservative provacateur and founder of FreeBeacon.com, replied, "reporters should do (their) job well if they don't want to be ridiculed as the stooges they are."

Follow @politico

Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico.