They filed complaint with White House after Joe Biden did not answer questions from White House reporters on some controversial issues during his meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
Johnson was answering a number of questions British reporters asked and as he was finishing a question from a reporter, White House officials told reporters to leave the room, and according to the video of the incident, they allegedly interrupted the prime minister. “Would it be ok to answer a few questions?” Asked Boris Johnson and continued: “Just a few questions.” “Good luck,” Biden replied.
As Biden’s aides shouted and the media outlets left, Biden, wearing a mask, sat in his chair for a few seconds and then moved his hand. Johnson, who was also wearing a mask, nodded and glanced around the room. “It’s stupid,” one of the reporters said as he left. “Two British reporters were called and we received no response.”
White House correspondent Steven Portnoy said reporters filed a formal complaint with White House Press Secretary Jen Saki. “All the editors-in-chief of the American Journalists Association immediately went to Jen Saki’s office to formally file their complaint because no questions from any of the American reporters in the Presidential Oval Office had been answered,” wrote Portnoy, president of the White House Journalists Association. When the president seemed to be answering Ed O’Keefe’s question about the state of the southern borders, the shouts of Joe Biden aides were louder. In the midst of those cries, Biden could not be heard. “Saki was unaware of the incident and said he was not in a position to offer an immediate solution,” he added. Your reporter requested a press conference. “Saki said the president answers questions several times a week.”
Ed O’Keefe told CBS News that because White House aides shouted and Biden’s answer was vague because of the mask he wore, he could not hear him answer his question about the US-Mexico border crisis. According to him, White House aides also interrupted Johnson’s speech by shouting and ordering reporters to leave the Oval Office.
