Biden’s Last-Minute Announcement of Vietnam Trip Sent the WH Press Corps Into Chaos: Report
AP Photo/Jess Rapfogel
President Joe Biden announced at a private fundraiser last month that he’d be visiting Vietnam “shortly,” it wasn’t just news to those present, it was news to the people who worked for the president. It was also news for the people who cover the president, the White House Press Corps, and the overseas trip reportedly sent the team into “chaos.”
According to a report in Politico West Wing Playbook, the announcement of the trip, which would follow Biden’s attendance at the G20 conference in India, sent the reporters of the press corps into a “logistical nightmare”:
Reporters who had been assigned to cover the G-20 were left with uncertain travel plans and a host of questions. Should they also plan to fly to Hanoi? Would it be before or after New Delhi? Would they have enough time to get a visa to Vietnam? And how would Biden make it back to the U.S. in time to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks?
“This White House in particular has been very close to the vest on the scheduling until pretty close to departure,” lamented one White House correspondent.
The trip was not formally announced until August 28. But before then, it meant getting a very pricey charter flight (“given the president’s tight schedule and limited commercial options from Delhi to Hanoi”) to get reporters from New Delhi to Hanoi, which would have to be approved by the reporters’ editors. This was a job for the White House Correspondents’ Association, which was able to swing the headcount they needed after it was learned that Biden would be doing a press conference in Vietnam following the G20.
The press conference was brought up on Air Force One during the press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Jean-Pierre explained the decision to hold the press conference in Hanoi was a “logistical” one:
Q: Was the decision to move the press conference from India to Hanoi a result of issues around press freedom and press access in India?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, I wouldn’t go that far. I think it’s just that it was easier… it was a logistical piece. It’s easier to do, it was just easier to do it in Vietnam. As you know, when the G… these types of summits happen, the G20 summits happen, it is all-consuming, all hands on deck. And it was just logistically easier to do it there.
And it wouldn’t — it wouldn’t have changed anything because it would have just been the president doing a solo press conference. So, instead of doing it in India, he’s going to be doing it in Hanoi.
