WASHINGTON — The White House Correspondents’ Association fired back Thursday after President Biden again complained that he didn’t like a reporter’s question, this time during a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Italy.
“I wish people would follow the rules a little bit more,” Biden, 81, said, scolding Bloomberg News reporter Josh Wingrove for asking about an end to the Israeli-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, rather than the stalemated Russia-Ukraine war.
“I’m here to talk about the crisis in Ukraine,” Biden complained after a day of meetings at the G7 summit. “You’re asking me about something else.”
The association’s president, veteran NBC News reporter Kelly O’Donnell, said in a statement that there are no “rules” about what reporters can ask at press conferences.
“The White House Correspondents’ Association believes it is in the public interest to make clear that there are no conditions on the subject of questions at any presidential press conference, domestic or international,” O’Donnell said.
“The White House decides how many reporters the president will allow, but professional journalists decide what questions to ask. While any leader may want reporters to ask only one question, or to ask only those topics that are of most interest to the president and other world leaders, a free press operates independently.”
O’Donnell added that the association “welcomes more opportunities to ask the president a variety of questions at press conferences.”
The president has held relatively few press conferences and interviews compared with his recent predecessors and has increasingly complained about reporters asking questions he doesn’t like.
Asked on the campaign trail last month whether he would serve out a second four-year term, as Republicans often insist, or hand power over to Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden, who will be 86 at the end of his second term, retorted by exclaiming: “Did I fall on my head?”
Biden also lashed out when a reporter asked not one but two questions during a White House news conference with Kenyan President William Ruto last month.
“You never keep your promises, and that’s OK,” a gruff Biden said after a reporter tried to interrupt him by demanding “just one question.”
While there are no clear rules about what journalists can ask, White House reporters sometimes come under intense pressure from media outlets to ask about certain things and not others — trending news topics are generally preferred — and journalists have also sought to better organize the historically disruptive shouting sessions of questioning at the end of public events to improve the chances that Biden will take questions.
By historical convention, the Press Association has enormous influence over White House press activity, with the association’s board of directors responsible for determining the seating plan for the Brady Briefing Room and also authorized to allocate workspace in the West Wing and decide which media organizations will have in-depth coverage of the president as part of a pool for city, national and international trips.
Under the Biden administration, the association has tried for years to understand and end the arcane pre-vetting process for journalists allowed into large indoor event spaces on campuses that, under previous presidents, had been open to all media personnel.
In another blow to press autonomy, the White House last year formalized procedures for revoking the press badges of journalists who “fail to conduct themselves in a professional manner,” closing a long-standing loophole that had previously allowed reporters to challenge the loss of their badges on due process grounds.
