White House refuses to answer reporters’ questions on the record

A White House spokesman on Monday night refused to answer reporters’ questions on the record.

Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters traveling with President Trump on Air Force One on Monday night that there was “obviously a lot of news to cover.”

During the flight, Gidley gave a few “pre-cleared comments” on news of the day but then refused to answer any more questions on the record.

Instead, he told reporters he could talk off the record, but reporters declined the offer.

{mosads}”That being said all I have to offer you on the record is that I can go off the record to address a couple of issues but I can’t give you anything on,” he said.

He did not tell reporters the reason he could not talk on the record. Reporters will commonly have more informal gaggles when White House press briefings aren’t held.

In his initial comments, Gidley confirmed that Trump spoke Monday morning with Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore to give Moore his endorsement ahead of the Dec. 12 special election.

“As we’ve said on multiple occasions the president would much rather have someone in the Senate who supported his agenda as opposed to someone who did not,” he told reporters.

He also addressed a Supreme Court decision Monday to grant the Trump administration’s request to fully reinstate the third version of his travel ban.

But he then declined to answer any questions from reporters on the record.

The comments came as the president and reporters were returning from a trip to Utah, in which Trump shrank two national monuments in Utah, potentially opening thousands of acres to drilling, mining and grazing.