Reporters who were expected to attend President Joe Biden’s widely hyped trilateral meeting with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines were left standing downstairs in a hallway while the commander-in-chief spoke.
The unusual logistical mishap barred journalists from watching the 81-year-old president’s opening remarks to Philippine President Bongbong Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the White House East Room.
It makes you wonder what the administration was hiding. There are no accidents of this nature. So, the administration was willing to look like they bumbled the meeting as far as the media was concerned to keep them ignorant of what Biden talked about with his guests. I find it difficult to believe that not one reporter asked one of their White House minders when they were going to be allowed in. Speculation is that the administration didn’t want the press to hear what was being said about China.
Michael Shear of the New York Times, who was in charge of the press pool that day, told his coworkers about the unexpected problem in an email update. They were waiting for comments from the summit of US allies.
WATCH:
Biden sits and stares — dazed and confused, as always — as his handlers forcibly remove the press from his meeting with the Japanese prime minister and the Philippine president. pic.twitter.com/06mNpPrNot
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In a tweet with the headline “Pool missed the pool spray,” Shear went on to share the “bad news: The White House held most of the press in the lower hallway in the East Wing even as the pool spray at the Trilateral meeting got under way.”
Shear wrote to other reporters, “as a result, your pooler and most of the American and Philippine reporters were not taken into the East Room until after [Biden] had concluded speaking.”
Marcos, on the other hand, “was concluding his remarks as the press was finally allowed into the room,” Shear stated in an email.
Reporters were able to hear Kishida remark that “today’s meeting will make history,” and Biden agreed that “when we stand as one we are able to force a better peace for all.”
Journalists who had just entered were escorted out of the room after Biden disregarded a shouted question regarding his message to China, which the three-country group is attempting to rebut.
It’s unclear why the majority of the press missed the primary story, but junior staff in the press office recently shifted, resulting in a less-experienced crop of new press “wranglers,” who are typically given great influence over moves while being in their early twenties.
A pool videographer was present in the room, and C-SPAN eventually posted footage of the entire opening comments.
Biden, whose public pronouncements occasionally backfire, hosted a state dinner in Kishida’s honor until late Wednesday. The event included a concert by singer Paul Simon after 10 p.m. in the State Dining Room, which is just below his bedroom.
The president responded to a reasonably large number of questions on Wednesday, stating he is “considering” Australia’s plea to cease the US prosecution of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, before tripping during a news conference and declaring he was living in the “20th century,” which means the 1900s.
Biden’s handlers have previously faced criticism from the White House Correspondents’ Association for inadequate staging and, in certain circumstances, forceful pre-screening of reporters allowed near the president.
In February 2023, Biden abandoned the majority of the traveling press pool for a surprise trip to Ukraine, bringing only one pre-selected US reporter and photographer with him, despite telling the Russian military, which constituted the largest security concern, of his travel plans ahead of time.
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