Psaki Beefs With Reporter Over Coverage of Biden-Adams Event: If We’re Trying to Keep it Secret ‘We’re Doing a Bad Job’
Brendan Smialowski/AFP, Getty
Press secretary Jen Psaki tangled with Time reporter Molly Ball on Twitter over how the White House was handling coverage of President Joe Biden‘s meeting with NYC Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday.
The president met with the mayor on Thursday to discuss a wide variety of issues, and several news stories have come out of that meeting including on the topic of the “Defund the Police” movement.
“The answer is not to defund the police, it’s to give you the tools, the training, the funding, to be partners [and] to be protectors,” said Biden at the meeting. It’s a major topic in the state, and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) spoke with MSNBC about it on Thursday also.
But reporter Molly Ball took issue with how that meeting was allowed to be covered.
“Apparently Joe Biden wants to be seen with Eric Adams so badly that the White House is…not letting the national media cover it!” she wrote in the first message of a tweet thread bashing the way it was organized.
“Biden is doing a ‘public’ event with the mayor here in NYC, but it is open only to the pool and an invitation-only press list. Mayor’s office says they had no say in who was invited,” she continued, tagging the White House Correspondents’ Association in the tweet.
Apparently Joe Biden wants to be seen with Eric Adams so badly that the White House is…not letting the national media cover it!
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) February 3, 2022
Biden is doing a “public” event with the mayor here in NYC, but it is open only to the pool and an invitation-only press list. Mayor’s office says they had no say in who was invited. @whca
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) February 3, 2022
There was no credentialing for this event, @WhiteHouse just handpicked pre selected media outlets to cover it. Very cool, very transparency.
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) February 3, 2022
Jen Psaki responded to the thread, pointing out that the meeting was “live on television with a full press pool” that had been selected by the rotation of WHCA reporters.’
“If we are trying to keep it a secret we are doing a bad job,” said Psaki in response to the transparency comment.
The event is live on television with a full press pool selected by the rotation run by the White House Correspondents Association. If we are trying to keep it a secret we are doing a bad job.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) February 3, 2022
Ball responded that this was not a counter to her point, arguing that no “national media outside the pool” were able to get access and cover the big meeting.
As I said, there was no ability for national media outside the pool to cover this event.
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) February 3, 2022
Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher also replied to the thread, expanding on the points that Psaki made about how the press pool operates. Ball responded to that tweet, again arguing that press outside the pool should have had a way to get credentials to cover the meeting. “This was a large event in an auditorium with hundreds of attendees,” she said.
There should have been a credentialing process for national press, even if there was a capacity limit. This was a large event in an auditorium with hundreds of attendees.
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) February 3, 2022
Some outlets carried live streams on YouTube which may still be available for viewing, but there is not yet an official video from the White House or the Mayor’s office on Youtube.
