‘This Guy’s Gotta Move!’ Photographer Absolutely Refuses to Budge at Biden/Putin Meet No Matter How Many Times He’s Asked

Things got competitive at the highly anticipated first meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and one photographer hogged the foreground, refusing to budge no matter how many times he was asked to get out of the way.

On Wednesday, the eyes of the world were on Geneva, Switzerland as Presidents Biden and Putin came together for the first in-person meeting of Biden’s presidency, and reporters were scrambling to get some good sound bites and art, as they say in the biz.

When Biden arrived, reporters shouted questions like “How do you feel?” (like, 4 times) and “How will you pressure Putin?” (pronounced, for some reason, “POO-din”).

And when the two leaders posed for a handshake, they ignored questions like “Will you see eye-to-ye?” and “Will you find common ground?”

Minutes later, Biden and Putin sat for another photo op, Biden upright and slightly more voluble than his slouching counterpart. But there was drama in the foreground, as one reporter pushed to the front of the pack and snapped away with his noggin firmly embedded in everyone else’s shot.

You can see another photographer repeatedly put his hand on the man’s back and shoulder to try and get him out of the shot, saying “No, no, I can’t see.”

“Can you move? Because I can’t get a shot of both of them.”

“Can you move? Because we can’t get a shot.”

“No, I can’t do that,” the photographer said, utterly lacking f*cks.

After asking a few more times, a frustrated photographer said “This guy’s gotta move.”

Finally, the photo op was over, and a press wrangler unceremoniously told the press, and this photographer in particular, “Go away! I’m asking you to go away please!”

Our anti-hero protested, and when the pool video cut away, he was still snapping away while that aide tried to shoo the press out.

Watch above via PBS.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!