President Barack Obama took umbrage at one reporter's question during his Wednesday press conference focusing on the Iran nuclear deal.
"Can you tell the country, sir, how you are content, with all the fanfare of this deal, to leave the conscience of this nation, the strength of this nation unaccounted for" while four Americans still are in Iranian prisons, CBS White House correspondent Major Garrett asked.
"I've got to give you credit for how you craft those questions," Obama replied. "First of all, the notion that I am 'content' as I 'celebrate' with American citizens languishing in Iranian jail," Obama began. "Major, that’s nonsense. And you should know better."
CNN's Dana Bash said Garrett crossed a line and was "disrespectful," but Garrett defended the wording of his question, telling his CBS colleagues it was intended to provoke an answer.
"Sometimes you have to take a scolding from a president to get to an answer," he said on CBSN, the news division's online channel. "That’s part of my job."
Politicians, especially presidents, are "very adept at creating straw men," Garrett said. "That’s exactly what the president did. Clearly it struck a nerve. That was my intention."
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