When Jay Carney walked into the Brady Press Briefing Room for the first time after the holiday break, he was not greeted with polite salutations from the assembled members of the White House Press Corps. Neither was his entrance into the room treated with apathy. Instead, there were gasps and groans and laughs. Off-camera reporters said things like “Wow!” and “Whoa!” and “What happened?”
The cause of this uproar? Jay Carney had grown a… wait for it… beard!
Twitter, predictably, asploded with the usual laughs and snark (and some praise).
SIREN: Carney sporting a beard.
— Jim Acosta (@JimAcostaCNN) January 6, 2014
It appears that Jay Carney prepared for the polar vortex by growing a beard
— Steve Holland (@steveholland1) January 6, 2014
Bizzaro Jay Carney wants you to answer a question for HIM
— Michael Roston (@michaelroston) January 6, 2014
Congrats to Jay Carney for finally hitting puberty.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) January 6, 2014
Finally, I'm a fashion trendsetter.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 6, 2014
HIPSTER JAY CARNEY RT @stefanjbecket: .@PressSec stubble pic.twitter.com/gjzUuujLIo
— Rebecca Berg (@rebeccagberg) January 6, 2014
The Carney beard also made The New York Times feel secure in declaring that beards are “mainstream.” The Style Section piece, headlined, “The Brooklyn Beard Goes Mainstream,” declared:
The beard, until recently the scruffy fashion statement of the plaid-shirt-and-craft-beer creative underclass, has lately been institutionalized, co-opted by The Man not only in the form of pinstripe-clad Beltway insiders, but by Wall Street titans, professional sports golden boys, Us Weekly cover boys and morning-show television hosts.









