White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki attempted to downplay President Joe Biden refusing to take questions from reporters multiple times last week, claiming that he did so because the reporters were not going to ask questions about the issues at hand.
Psaki made the remarks in response to questions from reporters during Monday’s press briefing who asked about instances in the Oval Office where Biden did not answer questions following talks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Just one more, as he sat down with Prime Minister Modi last week, the president said that the Indian press is better behaved than the US press, and then he advised him not to take questions,” a reporter said to Psaki. “Can you explain why the American president was criticizing US reporters in that setting?”
After claiming that Biden does take questions, Psaki said, “I think what he said is that they’re not always on point.”
“Now I know that isn’t something that anyone wants to hear in here, but what I think he was conveying is today he might want to talk about COVID vaccines, some of the questions were about that,” she continued. “Some of the questions are not always about the topic he’s talking about in that day. I don’t think it was meant to be a hard cut at the members of the media, people he’s taken questions from today and on Friday as well.”
Another reporter quickly followed up, noting, “It happened that he was sitting next to [the] Prime Minister of India, the world’s largest democracy, when he said that. It also followed the incident on Wednesday when he was sitting next to the Prime Minister of Great Britain.”
“Is the president reticent to take questions when he’s sitting next to a foreign leader in the Oval Office?” the reporter asked. “Can we expect him to do that in the future?”
“He’d already taken questions that day,” she said. “I think that was the context of his comments.”
WATCH:
Good on @WSJ's @Catherine_Lucey & @CBSNewsRadio's @StevenPortnoy for repeatedly pressing Jen Psaki on the fact that Biden blew off the press last week with U.K. PM Boris Johnson & took a swipe at them last week behind their backs, telling Indian reporters not to ask questions. pic.twitter.com/dUS24W8X90
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 27, 2021
Later during the press briefing, another reporter brought up the incident on Friday, noting, “The president said that the Indian press was better behaved than the US press, but the Indian press is ranked 142nd in the world, according to Reporters Without Borders, for press freedoms.”
“How does he say that about the US press compared to the Indian press?” the reporter asked.
“Well, I would just say to you that having now worked for the president, serving in this role for nine months, having seen that he’s taken questions from the press more than 140 times, including today and Friday, that he certainly respects the role of the press, the role of the freedom of free press,” she claimed. “We ensure that we have press with us, of course, when we travel, that we have press with us for sprays in foreign capitals, and we will continue to. I think that should speak to his commitment to freedom of press around the world.”
WATCH:
FTR, Fox's @JacquiHeinrich also asked: "The President said that the Indian press was better behaved than the U.S. press, but the Indian presence ranked 142nd in the world, according to Reporters Without Borders for press freedoms. How does he say that about the U.S. press[?]" pic.twitter.com/mhNwt4OwSD
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 27, 2021