Friday’s White House briefing was unexpected in multiple ways

Just before today’s White House press briefing when one of your correspondent’s more recognisable colleagues, Peter Doocy of Fox News, was seen delivering a breaking news update about a gruesome scene unfolding 230 miles to the north. Outside the New York courthouse where former president Donald Trump was standing trial, a man had handed out a number of conspiracy-laden pamphlets to bystanders and then, to their collective horror, set himself ablaze.

Video shared on social media showed the man standing still as the flames burned him before eventually collapsing, while police officers ran to discharge fire extinguishers onto his burning body.

Moments later in Washington, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked to react to the macabre events taking place on that Manhattan sidewalk.

Ms Jean-Pierre replied that it was “very sad news” and “a developing situation” about which she had nothing to report other than to refer further questions to local authorities in New York.

“I don’t have anything beyond what you are reporting. It’s just happening. It’s developing,” she added.

Your correspondent has been on the White House beat for nearly a decade now and can report that it’s not surprising that the president’s top spokesperson would not have been fully briefed on a self-immolation incident in another city which took place minutes before she was set to start her daily press briefing. At the point at which she spoke, the man had not yet even been identified by the NYPD.

But what was unusual was the press secretary’s seeming inability to discuss anything about an incident of a more global import that took place last night.

Despite repeated requests, Ms Jean-Pierre repeatedly declined to answer questions about