Duncan spokesman clears air about interview

Arnie Duncan’s spokesman Daren Briscoe called me after the US education secretary had a conference call with local reporters to clear the air about why I wasn’t included on the announcement. We also spoke about some of the other questions that came up as a result of Duncan’s interview, too.

[RIPR has posted the entire audio of the conference call interview. (I ask my question at 9 minutes into the call.) Here’s WPRI’s story and here’s the ProJo account.]

Briscoe said his office did not deliberately keep information from me. Rather, he said, the two people from Duncan’s press office that I spoke with did not know about it. He also said Gist did not ask Duncan to make the call to Rhode Island reporters, nor did anyone from the Department of Education.

He also cautioned me not read too much into Duncan not using Gist’s name throughout the interview but also didn’t want to add anything to that narrative, saying, “I’ll let the call speak for itself.”