Is this a stand alone event, or the start of a trend?
According to the New York Post, the White House blocked one of the paper’s reporters from President Joe Biden’s sole daytime press briefing on Monday. It is a notable move given that there appears to be some momentum in the investigation into the President’s son Hunter, who has been closely investigated by the paper.
The Post honed in on the president’s ties to his relatives’ foreign dealings; they first reported in October 2020 on files from Hunter’s abandoned laptop that linked Joe Biden to ventures in China and Ukraine. Biden has characterized The Post’s reporting as Russian disinformation.
At the event on Monday, Biden appeared with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to talk about airline policies in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. He took no question from an almost half-empty room of reporters. The email sent to the Post read: “We are unable to accommodate your credential request to attend the Investing in Airline Accountability Remarks on 5/8. The remarks will be live-streamed and can be viewed at WH.gov. Thank you for understanding. We will let you know if a credential becomes available.”
It was in this same room during the winter that Biden fumed at a Post reporter’s question about his family’s business links, lamenting the lack of “polite” reporters before storming out.
In truth, this event was a minor one, but the blocking of the Post would definitely raise some alarm bells if it began to happen more regularly as Hunter’s potential indictment looms. The White House has already made serious changes to the credential process. And The Post is obviously not some backburner paper: it has the fifth-largest news website by US readership and it is the nation’s second-most-read newspaper online. As of last year, The Post had the fifth-largest print circulation.
How will the White House respond to the press if such an indictment occurs?
What makes this situation so awkward is that the Justice Department is led by Merrick Garland but ultimately answers to the President, Joe Biden. The potential for unfairness has been a regular Republican talking point, and the investigation into the President’s own son by an agency that reports to the President has prompted some talk about how the investigation is being mishandled. There is some concern among aides that the real toll, no matter the result, won’t be political–it’s not a major issue among Democrats, and Donald Trump himself was recently indicted–but rather personal, as the President has done nothing but defend his son ever since the original Post story broke. If the mainstream media joins the chorus of conservative outlets, one could imagine a few press briefings dominated by Hunter questions.
One could see The Post’s exclusion through a lot of different lenses, but once the dam breaks on Hunter Biden, that’s when the serious questions will begin to be asked.
