(New York Post) First lady Jill Biden tore into White House staffers after they failed to cut off President Biden’s second solo press conference in January — when her husband kept taking questions even as then-press secretary Jen Psaki signaled to the president to wrap it up, according to a report.
President Biden was grilled at the Jan. 19 news conference about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, tensions between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine and the supply chain crisis that was causing a shortage of goods across the country.
Following the presser, which went on for about two hours, Jill Biden popped into a meeting of top White House officials who were rehashing the president’s performance, the New York Times reported.
First lady Jill Biden tore into White House staffers after they failed to cut off President Biden’s second solo press conference in January.AP Photo/Morry Gash, Pool
“She pointedly asked the group, which included the president, why nobody stepped in to stop it, according to a person who was in the room,” the outlet said. “Where was the person, she demanded, who was supposed to end the news conference?”
The Times report, describing how the first lady has become a favored surrogate for the president ahead of the midterm elections, noted that she has been protective of her husband and even took part in hiring White House staffers and press aides, including vetting Psaki alongside the president.
At the January presser, the president had been answering questions from a pre-arranged list of reporters for roughly an hour when Psaki — clad in an eye-catching pink blazer — stood up in an apparent attempt to bring the proceedings to a close.
