AP’s Zeke Miller Asks Why Biden Tapped McConaughey, Didn’t Speak Himself: ‘Does He Feel Like His Voice Doesn’t Matter?’
Movie star and Uvalde favorite son Matthew McConaughey stunned the political world with a surprise appearance at the White House, which led immediately to complaints from some reporters.
McConaughey spoke emotionally for about half an hour at Tuesday’s press briefing, and even as he strode out of the briefing room, one reporter shouted “Are you grandstanding, sir?”
And when White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took to the podium, The Associated Press White House correspondent Zeke Miller kicked things off by complaining that a “Hollywood actor,” and not President Joe Biden, was sent out to talk about gun violence, asking of the president ” Does he feel like his voice doesn’t matter?”:
MR. MILLER: So, on the subject of guns, the President had a meeting with Chris Murphy, but he didn’t speak to the public today. Does the President have a clearer sense of where things are, what is possible on Capitol Hill? And also, why is he turning to a Hollywood actor to make the message — take the message to the American people? Does he feel like his voice doesn’t matter?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: His voice does matter. You heard him speak on Thursday very clearly, very loudly, very passionately during primetime at a — at a critical time during the day where he made sure that he can communicate with the American people.
And so — he’s the President of the United States. His voice carries and it does matter. What he says is — has — carries weight that is pretty tremendous.
Matthew was here because, as you heard, he has a very personal connection to Uvalde. He met with the family. He is from there. He was born there. He lives in Texas. And we thought hearing from him directly, him using his platform, is incredibly important.
We all know what it’s like or how important it is for folks — especially on — whether you are an actor, whether you are in the business sector, wherever you are — to use your platform, how critical and important it is.
And I think his words here today were incredibly powerful and emotional. And I thank him and Camila for coming here today. They met with the President, as I just mentioned. And so I just, you know, wanted to just address that, Zeke.
The President received an update, as — as you all know, as we’ve mentioned, from Senator Murphy on the state of negotiations on Capitol Hill. He told Senator Murphy he strongly support his efforts to find a compromise, and encouraged him to get the strongest possible results.
In the end, the President said that the message he took from the families from — at Uvalde, when he was there, was to do something. It was to “please do something.” That’s what the grieving family told him. Some of you heard that yourselves from the community memb- — from the community when he was in Uvalde. And so that is what Senator Murphy and his colleagues are going to do. They’re going to do just that.
The president gave a speech about gun violence less than a week ago.
Later in the briefing, another reporter complained that the actor didn’t take questions, and asked “can you commit that going forward, if there was a guest or a celebrity here that you would ensure that they would stay at the podium and take questions from reporters after they speak?”
Jean-Pierre replied that when such an appearance is made, the person is “a guest of ours. It is up to them if they want to take questions or not. We respect them and what they want to do.”
Watch above via The White House.
