Matt Vespa at Townhall penned an article on “Why the White House Correspondents’ Association Ripped Into Joe Biden This Weekend.” Naturally, it was Team Biden keeping the president away from a microphone despite urgent debt-limit talks, lest he say something that might make him look past his prime….as if hiding him doesn’t leave that impression.
Nick Sortor tweeted out the full statement from WHCA president (and NPR reporter) Tamara Keith late Friday:
The WHCA board pushed hard for the White House to hold a briefing on Friday or potentially over the weekend given intense interest in the high stakes debt ceiling negotiations and the risk that the US economy could go over a cliff.
The White House was not persuaded by our argument that the public deserves to see them answer questions. Monday is a federal holiday, which means there could be four days in the midst of a political crisis, without a briefing.
What makes it odd is that it’s not on the WHCA Twitter account! That account did however tweet out video from CBS Sunday Morning on the 75th anniversary of death of journalist George Polk, and pinned it to the top of their page. It’s also not on the WHCA website, which is still pushing its annual dinner. Likewise, it’s not on Keith’s Twitter — but she has seven tweets or retweets on the dinner.
Since most White House reporters are Biden voters, they must have felt it was safe to complain (quietly), since Democrats in general have expressed some discomfort with how often Speaker Kevin McCarthy was speaking to reporters on the debt-limit negotiations and getting out all the Republican spin without Biden replying on camera.
The president did speak with reporters for less than five minutes when the deal was reached.