Jay Carney Seems to Lose It Over ABC Reporter's Tough Obamacare Questions: 'I Give Up

White House press secretary Jay Carney and ABC News reporter Jon Karl got into a tense back-and-forth Monday, with Karl pressing Carney to explain the continued failure of the Obamacare website.

The discussion became charged when Karl repeatedly asked Carney to explain President Barack Obama's claim that Americans need not worry about the faulty healthcare.gov website because they can always enroll through phone or paper applications.

“I’m going to go back to what the President said, he said you can bypass the website, and apply by phone or in person, and it could be done in 25 minutes, but these memos say that ‘at the end of the day, we are all stuck in the same queue, we all have to go through the same portal,'" said Karl.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (image source: screen grab)

The problem with this promise, Karl continued, is that phone and paper applications still have to go through the program's error-riddled website -- contrary to the president's promise.

Things didn't get any better as Karl persisted, prompting Carney to mock the ABC News reporter.

"Jon, I get it, but the person who calls isn’t the one who continues to wait after the paper application is filled," Carney said, imitating Karl's mannerisms.

“Your mocking is entertaining,” the reporter said, “but the President said you can apply within 25 minutes, that’s not true.”

Carney became increasingly flustered.

“You can have this soliloquy by yourself,” he said. “I think everybody else here understands what I’m saying. I’m sorry I can’t say the same for you.”

"Everyone else seems to get it Jon, except for you. I give up," he concluded:

--

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

This post has been updated.

[related]