Three years into Joe Biden’s presidency, reporters covering the administration know what to expect when first lady Jill Biden shows up: nothing.
The president, 81, has held the fewest press conferences or formal interviews of any modern commander in chief, leaving Biden’s walks across the White House South Lawn to and from his Marine One helicopter as the best chance for the press corps to get some information. face to face time.
When Biden is alone, it’s much easier to provoke him with shouted questions, sometimes moving around midnight for a give-and-take, even though the unflattering overhead television lights force him to raise his hand to shield his eyes. of the glow.
However, the presence of Jill, 72, on those trips is a clear indication that there will be no questions, and the first lady will make sure to hold her husband’s hand throughout the tour.
Jill Biden’s role in shielding her husband from members of the media has come under new scrutiny after special counsel Robert Hur described the president in a report released Thursday as an “old man with bad memory”.
First lady Jill Biden has long shielded her husband from members of the media in the White House, even chiding his advisers for not interrupting news conferences filled with the president’s mistakes. Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Biden has only held three solo press conferences at the White House since taking office in January 2021. The most recent, in November 2022, Jill arrived at the last minute and was seated at the front of the State Dining Room by a burly aide. , who positioned her so that reporters couldn’t see if the first lady was urging her husband at any point to hastily retreat.
Joe Biden’s Classified Documents Investigation Report
- Special counsel Robert Hur determined that President Biden “intentionally withheld and disclosed classified materials” after leaving office as vice president in 2016.
- The records maintained by Biden included documents on military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, as well as other national security and foreign policy issues.
- Biden kept the classified documents in part to help him write his memoirs. According to the report, Biden told a ghostwriter in a 2017 conversation that he “just found all the stuff classified below.”
- Despite the findings, Hur’s 388-page report recommended that the president not face charges.
- The special counsel noted that Biden would likely present himself to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-intentioned old man with a bad memory” if he were tried.
When Biden is alone, leaving the South Lawn of the White House to and from his Marine One helicopter, it is much easier to provoke him with shouted questions. fake images
Such precautions may have been necessary after Biden’s second White House press conference in January 2022, a marathon affair in which the president spoke for nearly two hours and made several notable factual errors and gaffes.
At that press conference, Biden suggested that a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine would provoke a minimal response from the United States, leaving officials in Kiev horrified and hinting that the president had given Vladimir Putin a “green light” to invade. what he did weeks later.
“Why didn’t anyone stop that?” Jill Biden infuriated her aides and demanded an explanation why her husband was abandoned to the world, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book by New York Times correspondent Katie Rogers, reported Friday by Axios.
“Everyone remained silent, looking at each other, then at her, then at each other,” Rogers writes. “That included the most powerful man in the world.
Biden, 81, has given only three solo news conferences at the White House and, when accompanied by his wife, rarely answers questions from the press as he walks hand-in-hand with her across the South Lawn for outings and helicopter arrivals. Shutterstock
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“Her husband essentially played along, without offering a response, even though his aides had slipped him a card suggesting he end the press conference,” the book adds.
A scathing report from special prosecutor Robert Hur noted Thursday that a jury would likely let Biden off the hook for any charge of allegedly withholding classified material because he would be seen as an “old man with a bad memory.” AP
The first lady also took on the role of stage manager from her husband, leading Joe offstage by the hand at an event last month to mark the anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot after repeated instances in which the president hesitated or wandered. in the wrong direction after making comments.
Jill is not alone: White House staff have also gone to great lengths to prevent the president from having potentially embarrassing interactions.
At that same January 2022 press conference that caused the first lady so much distress, then-press secretary Jen Psaki, dressed in a distinctive pink jacket, stood up after about an hour in an apparent attempt to end the proceedings. .
“Why didn’t anyone stop that?” Jill Biden infuriated her aides after a January 2022 press conference, according to excerpts reported Friday by Axios from a book published Feb. 27 by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers. fake images
Psaki sat back down as Biden continued to answer questions, only to stand up again about 20 minutes later and walk toward a door about 50 feet away from the press seating area in another apparent attempt to end the questioning, which continued for about 40 minutes. minutes more. .
But the most notable staff intervention came at the White House Easter egg roll in April 2022, when then-director of message planning Meghan HaysDressed in an Easter bunny costume, he barged in to stop Biden from answering an Afghan journalist’s question and pulled him away from the rope.
The White House press office has also played its part, introducing a Byzantine pre-screening process to select which journalists can attend large indoor events that were open to all during past administrations, leading to murmurs that those most aligned with administration were more likely to attend. Invitations will be extended.
Jill Biden has been seen leading Joe by the hand offstage immediately after the events, as the president has sometimes hesitated or veered in the wrong direction when exiting after making remarks. AP
The shortlist was eased following an outcry by members of the press in the summer of 2022, but returned ahead of Biden’s last-minute response to Hur’s report on Thursday night. Digital RSVP forms were only sent out a few minutes before the hastily scheduled event in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, and some reporters on the executive mansion campus were denied access to the relatively small venue.
Despite all the precautions, Biden’s tendency to say the wrong thing has never been hidden for long.
At that November 2022 White House press conference, for example, Biden said he would take 10 questions from reporters from a list of pre-approved names, but backed out after only answering nine, following a brutal mistake in the who said that Russian troops were preparing. withdraw from the Iraqi city of Fallujah when he meant from the Ukrainian city of Kherson.
Biden can still be provoked into exchanges with White House reporters when he appears alone on the South Lawn, occasionally shuffling back to the executive mansion around midnight. REUTERS
Those lapses have increased in recent weeks, as Biden confused the names of current foreign leaders with those of their deceased predecessors. On Sunday, he told an audience in Las Vegas that he had recently spoken with the late French President Francois Mitterrand, who died in 1996. On Wednesday in Manhattan, Biden reminded donors that he discussed the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot with Germans. Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who last held office in 1998 and died in 2017.
On Thursday night, moments after insisting “I know what the hell I’m doing” in response to the Hur report, Biden misidentified Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the “president of Mexico.”
The president has not held news conferences of any size since the APEC summit in November, where he appeared confused while standing next to other world leaders and mispronounced the name of the place.
That same month, his reelection campaign launched Operation “Bubble Wrap,” which insiders told the New York Times was intended to protect the president from his unflattering trips and missteps, whether on stage or while boarding the Air Force One.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn