Hoynes Deflects Leak with Dark Humor
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Hoynes dismisses the significance of the Internet with a sarcastic anecdote to reporters, deflecting serious inquiry.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Businesslike and unobtrusive — focused on preserving access and the official record rather than escalating the confrontation.
An unnamed reporter functions as the formal conduit for the press corps, offering the courteous interjection 'Thank you, sir' after Hoynes's anecdote and otherwise allowing the exchange to proceed while taking the public line at face value.
- • Record the Vice President's remarks accurately and keep the briefing moving.
- • Maintain press corps access and decorum in the hallway exchange.
- • The Vice President's anecdote is the immediate public framing and should be noted.
- • Politeness and procedural behavior keep lines of communication open with officials.
Feigned bonhomie masking defensiveness and containment; outwardly relaxed and amused while hardening into a controlled, dismissive posture to shut down inquiry.
Hoynes dominates the exchange: he launches into a dismissive anecdote about an Internet hoax, brusquely thanks reporters, then uses dark joking banter to unsettle Danny before delivering a firm, repeated denial about the cabinet meeting and exiting with staff.
- • Deflect and minimize any press scrutiny about the cabinet meeting.
- • Control the public narrative by reframing media interest as overblown or foolish.
- • Intimidate or unnerve a persistent reporter to prevent further questions.
- • The Internet and eccentric market spikes are trivial compared to real policy problems and make useful rhetorical cover.
- • A confident, dismissive public performance will contain a potential scandal.
- • Direct denial is an effective short-term defense even if it risks credibility later.
Determined and investigative on the surface, momentarily rattled and unsettled by Hoynes's hostile humor; retains suspicion underneath a toned-down exterior.
Danny presses for information about the cabinet meeting, attempts polite professional questioning, is visibly taken aback by Hoynes's flippant violent joke, and concedes the exchange after Hoynes's flat denials—still implying he believes there is more to pursue.
- • Elicit substantive information about what happened in the cabinet meeting.
- • Maintain journalistic pressure to pursue a potential story or leak.
- • Preserve professional access and credibility by testing Hoynes publicly.
- • There is meaningful, reportable information about the cabinet meeting worth pursuing.
- • The administration may be obfuscating or minimizing facts to avoid scandal.
- • Persistent questioning will eventually yield answers or force a mistake.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Hoynes references a small company's briefly spiking stock as concrete-sounding evidence (Toby's single stock holding archetype) to make his Internet anecdote believable and to show how quickly markets can react to hoaxes — used illustratively to undercut concern about leaks.
The online hoax headline (the website) is invoked verbally by Hoynes as a rhetorical prop: he recounts the hoax story to trivialize the Internet's impact and to reposition the press inquiry as chasing fads rather than serious leaks.
Narrative Connections
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Key Dialogue
"HOYNES: So, let me tell you something. Yesterday morning about ten o'clock, these two guys, as a joke, posted some false information on a website about this tiny start-up company, and it's stock started shooting up. By 2:30 in the afternoon, the hoax had been uncovered and the stock had adjusted itself. But by the end of the day this company, which neither you or I or the Secretary of Commerce has ever heard of, closed out as the twelfth highest traded issue on the Nasdaq index. This just in: the Internet is not a fad."
"HOYNES: Well, you know, now that you talk about it, I've been having this recurring dream about killing you."
"HOYNES: Hey, nothing happened. (to staff) Let's go."