White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed Thursday it was “entirely normal” for President Biden to be holding a cheat sheet with advance knowledge of a journalist’s question at a joint press conference — even as she denied that was what happened.
“It is entirely normal for a president to be briefed on reporters who will be asking questions at a press conference and issues that we expect they might ask about,” Jean-Pierre told members of the White House press corps at her regular briefing.
“It is not surprising that yesterday we would anticipate questions that he did receive — right? — on the visit with the South Korean president [Wednesday],” the press secretary went on.
“We do not have specific questions in advance, that’s not something that we do,” Jean-Pierre added — despite that fact that her own briefings have been heavily pre-scripted for months, with an aide generally canvassing reporters for their questions ahead of time and the press secretary then declining to call on those who balk.
The question for the 80-year-old president was submitted by Los Angeles Times reporter Courtney Subramanian, whose outlet denied in a statement to Fox News that it gave Biden’s team advance knowledge of its contents.
“How are YOU squaring YOUR domestic priorities — like reshoring semiconductors manufacturing — with alliance-based foreign policy?” read the question.
Jean-Pierre claimed Subramanian’s question ended up being “different” from the one on the card — and also disclosed that the White House taps “a number of reporters” in advance for any given press event.
“We try to be really mindful about who has not gotten a question in a while,” she said. “We picked the LA Times, which has not gotten a question in some time,” before noting that Los Angeles has a large Korean-American population.
Veteran White House journalist Jon Decker of Gray Television wasn’t buying Jean-Pierre’s denials and challenged her claim that Biden’s aides had merely anticipated rather than pre-screened the Wednesday question.
“Is it your contention, Karine, that the question that was on the so-called cheat sheet was not similar to the question that was asked?” Decker shouted. “It’s a very reasonable question.”
“Could you wait your turn?” Jean-Pierre countered.
“Absolutely,” Decker said.
Jean-Pierre opted not to return to Decker during the briefing or to answer his question challenging the truthfulness of her denials.
When a foreign leader appears alongside Biden at a White House press conference, it’s customary for just two American reporters and two foreign reporters to be selected to ask questions.
Some former White House press secretaries said it was outrageous that a reporter would pre-submit a question.
President George W. Bush’s first press secretary Ari Fleischer, who held the job from 2001 to 2003, tweeted, “The LA Times needs to investigate this. No WH reporter would ever tell me what question they intended to ask POTUS. It would be unethical – not to mention soft – to do so. The Times and this reporter have explaining to do.”
Kayleigh McEnany, former President Donald Trump’s press secretary from 2020 to 2021, said in a Fox News appearance, “It is incredible to me that reporters are giving their questions” to Biden ahead of time.
The so-called “2:2” press conferences with visiting foreign leaders generally are more carefully staged than other forums and the Trump White House’s press office also on at least some occasions asked journalists what they might ask about if given the opportunity to be one of the two selected US reporters.
The Wednesday press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol discussed growing nuclear threats from North Korea and celebrated the 70th anniversary of the two nations’ diplomatic alliance.
