White House removes footage of argument between Karine Jean-Pierre and African reporter from press briefing archive

The missing section was restored after Fox News reached out to the White House for comment, which claimed the omission was caused by an error with the encoder that feeds the live stream to YouTube.

According to the outlet, in the missing portion Jean-Pierre said, "The White House, under this administration, we’re committed to the freedom of the press. I want to be very clear about that."

Ateba asked, "So are you going to take questions from me?… because you’ve been discriminating against me for the past nine months."

Jean-Pierre responded, "You’re incredibly rude. You’re being incredibly rude," and threatened, "If this continues, we’re going to end the press briefing."

Ateba retorted, "I’ve been in this briefing room. I’ve been trying to ask you one question when I am on. You're not giving freedom of the press."

Ateba told Fox News, "I'm black, I'm an immigrant and I'm the little guy... I'm just trying to do my job," adding that he was skeptical the gap was caused by a technical error and accused the Biden administration of intentionally removing it.

He told Fox News that his emails to the White House are not returned and he has been ignored in press briefings for the better part of a year. "They blacklist you. They don't respond to your question, they don't respond to your email. And they don't allow you to ask questions in the background."

Ateba added that it is his job to make "those who are comfortable uncomfortable."

"But what happens is if you do that, if you make the comfortable uncomfortable, what happens to you is they try and sideline you. And the other people will be afraid to even come near you because [they] don't want to be seen close to you because then they won't get questions at the next press briefing, then they won't be invited to social events."

Ateba noted, "I've done my best. And when you think about it, in the next 50 years, five years, 10 years, 15 years, when people look back and see that African journalist who was there in the briefing room, trying to do the job, is just trying to ask the question, and trying to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Africa."

"And you pass on him, you banned him, you sidelined him, you oppressed him, you discriminated against him only to go to Africa and claim that you want to strengthen ties,” he continued. “It's actually offensive. It's shocking."