Takeaways from the White House briefing: Climate change, health care, and a red-hot media feud

From the White House's so-called "Energy Week" to the delay on an expected Senate health care bill, there was a lot buzzing in the White House briefing room on Tuesday. Here are our takeaways from the press conference with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and spokeswoman Sarah Sanders:

Climate change is real...at least, according to Perry

From an administration that usually tiptoes around the subject, Energy Secretary Rick Perry made what seems like a fairly definitive statement about climate change: the climate is changing. While it always has existed, humans "at this particular time" are having an effect on changing temperatures, he said.

What's still unclear: whether President Trump, who has previously called climate change a hoax, agrees with him.

"I have not had that conversation with him," Perry said when asked whether Trump agrees with Perry's stance.

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But he's not going to talk about his past comments on Trump

Perry once called candidate Donald Trump "a cancer on conservatism."

Ask him about it now, six months into the Trump administration, and Perry will dance around it. When questioned on his previous comments, Perry smiled and simply replied, "That has nothing to do with energy."

On-camera briefings ...

Ironically, Tuesday's on-camera briefing — lobbied for by journalists — was briefly overshadowed by media coverage of the Senate health care bill on Capitol Hill, when GOP lawmakers announced they would postpone voting on the legislation until after the July 4 recess.

After deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders delivered her prepared statements, she joked that perhaps she could skip the question-and-answer part.

"You wanna skip questions? Been here a while," she said.

...Won't keep the media criticism away

Following up on Trump's tweets criticizing CNN and other outlets for their coverage of the Russia investigation, Sanders blasted what she called "the constant barrage of fake news that is directed at the president."

In particular, she decried coverage of what she called "the Russia-Trump hoax," even though multiple congressional committees and a special counsel are investigating whether Trump campaign associates colluded with Russia during the election. 

That irked Brian Karem of the Sentinel newspapers, who openly sparred with Sanders.  

"We're here to ask you questions, you're here to provide the answers," Karem said. "What you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country."

Health care isn't 'about the timeline'

President Trump is set to meet with GOP senators Monday afternoon, following the delay of a vote on the Senate's proposed health care legislation.

Still, the White House is downplaying the delay, saying they are talking to more senators about striking a deal.

"It's never been about the timeline," Sanders said. "It's about getting the best piece of legislation."

And about those Syria comments... 

The White House is denying that its Monday night statement on Syria came out of the clear blue sky. While State Department and defense officials said the statement — in which the White House claimed "potential" evidence that Syria was preparing for another chemical weapons attack — caught them by surprise, Sanders said members of the intelligence community were actually looped in.