President Biden started to wander off during a skydiving demonstration at the G7 summit in southern Italy Thursday, with the host nation’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni pressed into action to pull him back toward the group. As the leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies applauded the evening parachuting presentation, the 81-year-old US president’s attention visibly wandered away from where the others were looking. Biden appeared to miss the action happening right in front of him as he shuffled a few steps away from his fellow heads of government, turned the other way and appeared to say something to an officer packing a parachute.
White House Correspondents Push Back After Joe Biden Grouses Over Reporters Not “Playing By The Rules”
The White House Correspondents’ Association is objecting to the notion that reporters agreed to any restrictions on the types of questions they could ask of President Joe Biden at a press conference earlier today at the G7 summit in Italy. Appearing at the press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden took a question from Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove. Wingrove asked the president if he would give his assessment of Hamas’ response to the latest ceasefire proposal. “Do you believe that they are trying to work towards a deal or is this response against a deal?” Wingrove asked. Biden responded, “I wish you guys would play by the rules a little bit. I’m here to talk about a critical situation in Ukraine and you asked me about another subject.” Earlier in the press conference, Colleen Long of the Associated Press asked a Ukraine-related question and another one about his son Hunter’s conviction. The president said he would answer the question about Hamas in detail later, but said that, when it comes to the ceasefire deal, “the biggest hangup so far is Hamas refusing to sign on even though they have submitted something similar. Whether it comes to fruition remains to be seen. ”NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, later issued a statement pushing back on the notion that reporters had agreed to a set of “rules” on what could be asked. “The White House Correspondents’ Association believes it is in the public interest to make clear that at a presidential press conference, at home or abroad, there are no preconditions regarding question topics.