President Joe Biden had to repeatedly ask for stage directions during a news conference with Kenyan President William Ruto on Thursday, where he appeared stunned by television reporters who shouted questions at him at the end.
‘Is that so?’ Biden asked at one point during the proceedings, as U.S. and Kenyan media reporters asked each leader questions in a prefabricated format.
‘What was my question?’ Biden asked an American journalist that he asked a long question to Biden and Ruto at the same time.
“Sir, your question was Haiti,” the journalist told him in the 81-year-old president’s first press conference in a month.
Biden brought down the gavel when the first reporter he remembered from a prepared list tried to ask him a couple of questions: one about Haiti and another about an International Criminal Court order against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“One question,” Biden intoned, though the reporter tried to ask two anyway.
Biden conspicuously read from printed notes during several of his answers, including when talking about international lending institutions, injecting some jokes.
President Joe Biden tried to limit a reporter to a single question and then asked “is that it?” when his press conference with Kenya’s president was almost over on Thursday.
“We’re happy to do our part,” he said.
Journalists, who have not had the opportunity to question the president at a news conference since April, were not satisfied.
A handful of television correspondents seated at the front jumped in at the end of the 30-minute event to answer Biden with simultaneous questions about Ukraine, Russia and other issues.
‘Wow!’ Biden said, apparently shocked by the cacophony and burst of questions.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre closed the event and ended the event before Biden said anything outside the default “two-and-two” format: two questions for each country’s press.
On Israel, Biden dodged a question about whether the United States would share relevant information with the ICC.
‘Shall I also ask the following question?’ President Biden asked those allowed about the development of the show during his “two and two” press conference, which follows a well-established format.
He complained about the journalist who forced the investigation into his question to Ruto even though Biden tried to limit it to one.
“You guys never keep the deal, but that’s okay,” Biden said.
Then, for his substantive response, he said “we do not recognize jurisdiction” and “We do not believe there is an equivalence between what Israel did and what Hamas did,” referring to the October 7 attack inside Israel.
Biden seemed to ask whose turn it was to speak to a reporter after that question, his first.
‘Shall I also ask the following question? she asked.
The typical format is for the two leaders to alternate and, in fact, it was Ruto’s turn.
Biden also talked about why the United States was contributing resources, but not troops, to help try to bring stability to the chaos in Haiti, where Kenyan forces will play a role.
“We conclude that the fact that the United States is deploying forces in the hemisphere raises all kinds of questions that can easily be misrepresented about what we are trying to do,” he said.