Thursday’s White House press briefing lacked some quality Doocy Time for the second day in a row, but there was still plenty of tense back-and-forths featuring Newsmax’s James Rosen, CBS’s Ed O’Keefe, and surprisingly the AP’s Zeke Miller over the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to hold this week’s Quad Summit — featuring leaders from Australia, India, and Japan — in Wilmington, Delaware and thus severely curtail press access.
During White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s turn at the podium, Miller first went there on press access:
AP’s @ZekeJMiller: “The President’s hosting the Quad summit in Wilmington, Delaware. We also understand that he's hosting bilateral meetings with those some of those with those world leaders at his private home and what we currently understand is that the press will not be… pic.twitter.com/cfnzlFsup2
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 19, 2024
Miller again pushed back, noting the press are shutout from any pictures of the meetings or dinners and that even Republican presidents Bush and Trump allowed the pool in when they hosted foreign leaders at their retreats in Crawford, Texas, and Florida’s Mar-a-Lago, respectively.
Jean-Pierre stumbled and fumbled her way, but nonetheless conveyed a message that could have been boiled down to suck it up, buttercup.
A few minutes later, O’Keefe tried to poke and prod to find out whether the lack of press access, first wondering about national security concerns of foreign journalists being allowed on the grounds of President Biden’s Delaware home:
CBS’s @EdOKeefe: “And on the decision not to allow reporters to see the bilaterals that he'll be having Friday afternoon and Saturday, does this have something to do with the foreign press pools from India, Japan, Australia? Are there security concern with having them on the… pic.twitter.com/b1m4td99R7
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 19, 2024
He moved next to probing whether the lack of a press conference was requested by one of the countries (i.e. India). Jean-Pierre dodged that too, saying she wouldn’t “speak to private conversations that our folks at NSC are having with the different countries” and pivoted to how excited Biden was to have them in Delaware to provide more “personal touches” and press access limited to things like a group photo, a speech on Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, and seeing their respectively planes depart.
“There’s going to be — there’s — there’s, but can you also appreciate — I hear you all, but you also appreciate that we have created other opportunities,” she added, to which Rosen had decided enough was enough.
Rosen called out the nonsense: “They’re called photo ops. That’s what you’ve created. They are not a press conference, which we would prefer.”
O’Keefe expanded on that and pointed to Biden having (laughably) fluffed his feathers for nearly four years insisting he’s been the most transparent president ever:
What...I was gonna suggest is what baffles people in this room, especially for those who are watching this and wondering why on earth do we harp on these sides of things, what baffles us is this is a President who from day one committed to be the most transparent president possible, who has given speeches at various events saying that he stands for and respects the freedom of the press and here is a great opportunity to stand with the leader of the world’s largest democracy, India, and two other key democracies who are from a region of the world that is struggling to maintain democracy. Why not face questions from reporters in a free press in that setting?
Jean-Pierre played dumb, which O’Keefe wasn’t amused by (click “expand”):
JEAN-PIERRE: — okay, so which part are you asking me about?” Are you asking me about going —
O’KEEFE: Why aren’t we being allowed to attend these meetings —
JEAN-PIERRE: — so — so —
O’KEEFE: — in house and why is there no press conference?
JEAN-PIERRE: — okay, okay —
O’KEEFE: — which I think was the crux of the negotiations or at least the conversation —
JEAN-PIERRE: — no, I — no, I —
O’KEEFE: — that went on earlier today.
JEAN-PIERRE: — I hear you, but there are two things that I’m being asked, so let me — not every — not every opportunity that we have and we do have these foreign — foreign leaders here — do we have a press conference. That is not unusual. We have gone many times back and forth about.
O’KEEFE: Which also frustrates us.
JEAN-PIERRE: I — I totally understand. There’s been some bilate and there’s been some other visit where there has not been some press conferences, right? That is not unusual. I — we’ve had conversation —
ROSEN: It is unusual.
JEAN-PIERRE: — excuse me. Excuse me, I’m not speaking to you. I really am not. Let me have my conversation with Ed. Let me have my conversation with Ed. Thank you. And so it is — it is not unusual for us to have this back and forth and talk about why it is happening or not happening, so that is, I’ll put that there. The other part is this is an opportunity for the president to have a personal moment — uh — with the leaders we have created other opportunities for you all to see him with those leaders standing with those leaders, shaking hands with the leaders, giving them — giving them opportunities to see his high school — right — places where he — uh — that he’s very well, very much connected to that you all will see. He’s going to make a really important announcement about the Cancer Moonshot. We believe, and I know there is a difference of agreement here — right — is that there’s going to be plenty of opportunities for press to have access to see him with these other leaders. And so, we have made sure — made sure and people — I think people actually care about photo ops. Photo ops are indeed important because you and maybe there’ll be questions taken during those photo ops. You never know, right? Um — but a formal press conference on this trip is not going to happen with this particular vet is not going to happen. We have gone back and forth on many other events, so that’s what I’m saying is not unusual. We are, we wanted to make sure that there were plenty of press access throughout the day, and we believe we have done that and let’s see how the day goes. Let’s see how the day goes on Saturday.
Elsewhere in the briefing, Miller asked National Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jared Bernstein about the latest sign of Biden’s mental decline:
AP’s @ZekeJMiller: “The President, in his remarks about an hour ago, said that he had never spoken with the Fed chairman since he's been in the White House. That's obviously not true. They met in the Oval Office in 2022. Could you clarify the President's remarks there and why did… pic.twitter.com/maI8aTCZD8
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 19, 2024
In contrast, HuffPo’s S.V. Date had this softball:
Jared, the previous president — no matter what the state of the economy, no matter what was going on — every single good thing that happened, he personally took credit for it immediately, saying this is the best economy ever, we’ve had more jobs ever than anywhere in the universe, et cetera. Should this president have done the same thing in order to cheerlead more and get people a better — more excited about the state of things?
To see the relevant transcript from the September 19 briefing, click here.
