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President Joe Biden has criticized the attitude of American journalists and compared them to journalists in India. The situation arose after President Biden’s refusal to answer questions while in the Oval Office with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson a few days earlier.
At the end of the conversation, Johnson took the initiative to answer “a couple” of questions from British reporters. But the White House team abruptly cut the press conference short. In addition, it removed the journalists from the office before any reporters got a response from Biden.
Then on Friday, Biden met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After the meeting, the Democrat praised the Indian press: “The Indian press is much better behaved than the American press. I think, with your permission, you could not answer questions because they won’t ask any questions on point.”
Biden’s comments were criticized by several American journalists. In fact, some commented that they thought the words were from the prime minister of India.
“I thought Modi had said this when I heard about it, but nope that’s the American president,” Katie Rogers, a reporter for The New York Times, wrote on Twitter.
The White House position on the situation with American journalists
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, referred to what happened during the meeting with the British Prime Minister. She explained that they made the decision to end the press conference because Boris Johnson decided to respond to journalists without informing the White House first.
“I think our relationship with the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Johnson is so strong and abiding we will be able to move beyond this,” said Psaki. “But, he called on members of his press corps without alerting us to that intention in advance.”
Finally, it was learned that the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Steven Portnoy, together with his team, filed a formal complaint with Psaki’s office about what happened.
