White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki hit back at a suggestion that Thursday’s meeting between President Joe Biden and New York City Mayor Eric Adams was being kept out of sight of the media.
Molly Ball, Time’s national political correspondent, tweeted: “Apparently Joe Biden wants to be seen with Eric Adams so badly that the White House is… not letting the national media cover it!”
Tagging the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), she added: “Biden is doing a ‘public’ event with the mayor here in NYC, but it is open only to the pool and an invitation-only press list. Mayor’s office says they had no say in who was invited.”
A third tweet read: “There was no credentialing for this event, White House just handpicked pre-selected media outlets to cover it. Very cool, very transparency.”
Ms Psaki replied: “The event is live on television with a full press pool selected by the rotation run by the White House Correspondents Association. If we are trying to keep it a secret we are doing a bad job.”
Ms Ball responded: “As I said, there was no ability for national media outside the pool to cover this event.”
Jonathan Franks, founder of Los Angeles-based firm Lucid Public Relations, then tweeted: “I’m super confused how they’re trying to hide this from the press because I’m watching said event on all three major cable networks right now?”
He added: “I also see a pretty vibrant social media discussion of the President’s remarks on social amongst reporters so I’m doubly confused???”
Pool reports are provided by a rotating roster of White House correspondents for both in-town and out-of-town coverage of the president.
This is arranged by the WHCA, which is an organisation independent of the White House.
