White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended President Joe Biden Thursday after he was pictured at a news conference a day earlier using a note card that contained an advance question from a reporter.
Biden took questions from several reporters after he held a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol Wednesday at the White House.
Images went viral on Twitter showing Biden holding a card that contained a photo of a reporter, the pronunciation of her name, and a question she appeared prepared to ask him.
Joe Biden gets caught RED-HANDED using a CHEAT SHEET of reporters INCLUDING the very questions that they’re going to ask…
…and the reporters go along with it! pic.twitter.com/bWT5ae1Qow
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 26, 2023
Joe Biden’s notecard doesn’t just tell him which reporters to call on, it includes what order to call on them in and what PRE-SUBMITTED questions they’re going to ask.
There’s no way this happened under Trump..
Embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/FRDw0OhaN0
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 26, 2023
Joe Biden is so braindead that his team has to vet reporters questions ahead of time. Then they prepare an answer and put it on a card for Joe Biden to read. Because they know he’ll say the wrong thing or just stammer like a moron.
We’ve known for a while that he gets questions… pic.twitter.com/9hQXKn713s
— Andrew @ Don’t Walk, RUN! (@DontWalkRUN) April 26, 2023
The reporter on the card was identified as Courtney Subramanian with The Los Angeles Times.
Should presidents be given questions in advance?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 100% (15 Votes)
The question on the card read, “How are YOU squaring YOUR domestic priorities – like reshoring semiconductors manufacturing – with alliance-based foreign policy?”
At her daily briefing Thursday, Jean-Pierre was asked about the topic by Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.
Heinrich noted the newspaper denied it ever sent the White House a question in advance.
She was also asked “why” Biden needed a pocket card with questions he might be asked.
JACQUI TIME: “LA Times said…their reporter did not submit…questions in advance…{T]o people who saw that pocket card, can you explain…why [Biden] needed…that?”
KJP insists “[i]t is entirely normal for a president to be briefed on reporters…and issues…they might ask” pic.twitter.com/0uAMrj2tbD
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 27, 2023
Jean-Pierre defended Biden holding the card and claimed it is “normal” for presidents to have advance knowledge of what they will be asked during press conferences.
“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 said, according to Newsweek.
“It is not surprising that yesterday we would anticipate questions that he did receive on the visit with the South Korean president … or about 2024, that was completely expected, or about the debt ceiling which he took questions at the end,” she also said.
Jean-Pierre added, “We do not have specific questions in advance. That’s not something that we do.”
In fact, she concluded, “I would point out that the question that was asked was different than what was on the card that you all saw.”
Biden has made news throughout his time in office for calling on specific reporters who appeared to have been selected beforehand.
