The group of nine journalists from the nominally communist and notably censored island had crossed the Straits of Florida to cover talks aimed at reestablishing diplomatic ties.
While those negotiations are taking place at the State Department in Washington, the journalists and a Cuban government official were also invited to visit the nearby seat of US executive power.
Nearing the end of the daily jousting match, press secretary Josh Earnest turned to a bank of unfamiliar reporters in the sixth row.
Like many regular White House correspondents, she used the opportunity to ask several at once: about opening embassies, diplomatic freedoms, the US desire for regime change, thawing ties and the pace of reform in Cuba.
With a recent historical meeting between presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro fresh in mind, Earnest stressed coordination, cooperation and common purpose with Havana, but there was also a targeted zinger.
"We continue to have significant concerns about the way that the Cuban government all too often fails to respect the basic universal human rights," he said.
Following the briefing some of the older Cuban journalists expressed disbelief that they were even at the White House.
"I never thought I would see this in my lifetime," one of the correspondents told AFP. "There is even a correspondent from Granma here," another said, laughing.
Granma -- the mouthpiece of the central committee of the ruling Cuban Communist Party -- for years hosted Fidel Castro's screeds against the imperialist Yankee enemy.