WASHINGTON — President Biden lashed out at the White House press corps on Thursday, complaining that the press corps “never honors the agreement” when reporters asked him a second question during a joint news conference with Kenyan President William Ruto. denounced.
Biden, 81, appeared confused and frustrated at various times during the 32-minute event, mistakenly calling the vice president “President Kamala Harris” and committing at least his eighth misstep before trying to block a reporter’s second question.
“Thank you, Mr. President. Let me ask you two questions if I may,” began Michael Willner, chief Washington correspondent for the McClatchy newspaper chain. Mr. Willner is one of two American journalists chosen – along with two Kenyan journalists – to question Mr. Biden and Mr. Ruto in a so-called “2:2” meeting. Press conference.
“No, one!” Biden replied, though the audience, who initially laughed, thought he was joking.
Willner first asked a question about a widely expected topic – the U.S.-backed peacekeeping mission in Haiti, where Kenya has troops, and then attempted to ask a second question about the request for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu filed on Monday by International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.
“And about Israel,” Wilner began, but Biden cut him off.
“I have one question, and I’ll answer it,” the president said, reading aloud from a manuscript about Haiti.
The White House press office generally has some idea of what questions reporters will ask. This can be from a recent history of questions asked at press conferences or social gatherings, or from press secretaries asking questions, sometimes subtly, about topics of interest to the reporters they are considering that day.
Mr. Willner, who frequently covers Haiti-related topics because of the high level of interest among readers of the Miami Herald, one of McClatchy’s largest publications, politely acknowledged Mr. Biden’s restrictions when given time to ask Mr. Root a question. I ignored him and continued with the second question.
“I have a quick question,” Wilner continued calmly, “about whether the United States has any evidence whatsoever to support or exonerate the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s specific allegations that Israeli leaders are using starvation as a war tactic in Gaza.”
Willner asked Biden: “Will you commit to releasing that information before an ICC arrest warrant is issued?”
“Look, we made my position clear at the ICC. You guys will never abide by the agreements, and that’s OK,” Biden said in a disgruntled tone.
“You know, we’ve made our position clear with regard to the ICC,” he added. “We don’t think, we don’t recognize the jurisdiction, the ICC, how it’s exercised. It’s that simple. We don’t think there’s an equivalence between what Israel has done and what Hamas has done.”
Biden’s performance at the press conference was visibly disorganized at several points, including when he referred to “President Kamala Harris, our first Black vice president,” in his opening remarks, among others. It immediately attracted attention for a reason.
In response to the first question from a Kenyan reporter about the US decision not to send its troops to Haiti, Biden appeared to claim that US troops were on a mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. .
“We’re busy around the world, but we’re also engaged in neighboring Congo, and we’ll continue to help alleviate human suffering there,” Biden said. There is no such development is publicly known.
Immediately after that, Biden lost his train of thought.
“What was my question?” Biden asked Griot’s April Ryan, the second American reporter to ask about efforts to crush Haiti’s powerful gangs.
Before the fourth reporter from the “2:2” press team was selected, America’s oldest president in history asked Ruto: “So?”
Biden’s latest stumble comes as an overwhelming majority of voters say he is too old to serve another four-year term ahead of his Nov. 5 rematch with former President Donald Trump, 77. It depends on what you’re doing. If Biden completes his second term in January 2029, he will be 86 years old. .
According to a New York Times/Siena College poll released in March: 73% of registered voters Although they think Biden is “too old to be an effective president,” only 42% said the same about Trump.
