LIMA — President Biden arrived in Peru’s capital Thursday night for the first of two major international conferences with his daughter Ashley and granddaughter Natalie in tow — as reporters protested the increasingly irrelevant lame-duck leader’s lack of scheduled press availabilities during the weeklong trip.
Biden, 81, did not speak to reporters upon arriving for his first official trip to South America — where he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders at the APEC and G20 summits — after reporters harangued White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Air Force One.
“Biden wants to engage with leaders. He is not choosing to engage with the press. There is no press conference on either leg of this trip. He has a matter of days left. I mean, what was the issue?” one journalist vented during a mid-air press gaggle.
“He is going to continue to engage with the press,” Jean-Pierre replied before delivering a well-worn deflection. “What I would say is stay tuned. He will continue to do that, and I just don’t have anything beyond that.”
Another journalist then leaned into Biden — who has been increasingly out of view as President-elect Donald Trump dominates the news cycle with unconventional selections for Cabinet picks after a campaign in which Biden claimed the Republican would dismantle democracy and rule as a fascist.
The second journalist asked if Biden, who dropped his own re-election bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris amid a Democratic mutiny over his mental acuity, was staying out of the spotlight because he was not in a position to offer cogent words for public consumption.
“Post-election press conferences in most administrations have been sort of a set piece. Does that say something about where his head’s at, that he’s not a place to even engage with us?” a wire reporter inquired.
“Typically presidents do engage with the press,” the reporter said.
“He will continue to engage with the press,” Jean-Pierre repeated. “He respects and understands the — obviously — the importance of the work that you all do, especially as it relates to communicating and communicating directly with the American people.”
A third journalist struck a strident tone, demanding, “Can you commit that he will speak to us during [the trip]? Karine, this is a long and expensive trip for our outlets!”
The outgoing press secretary laughed before replying, “I get that.”
“I’m just saying that he’s going to continue to engage with the press. I don’t have anything beyond that to say he will continue to engage with you,” Jean-Pierre went on.
“He respects and understands the important role that you all have, and we will continue to do that. You’re trying to lock me into something. I’m just not going to lock a bit locked into anything.”
Despite professing to be a fan of press engagement, Biden’s four-year term featured no interviews with newspaper reporters from major dailies, and his media staff drew a press corps revolt over a new mysterious prescreening process for reporters allowed within earshot of the president.
The Biden White House also became the first to formalize rules for yanking reporter press badges and featured far fewer press conferences than recent predecessors.
Biden’s South America tour will first feature four days in Peru, where he will participate in talks with leaders of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organization, capped with a Saturday meeting with Xi, where he’s expected to tout this year’s decrease in fentanyl deaths, despite nearly 300,000 such American deaths from the largely China-sourced drug since Biden took office.
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The retiring president, who leaves office Jan. 20, will then visit the Amazon rainforest in Manaus, Brazil, before arriving Sunday in Rio de Janeiro for the annual G-20 summit of leaders from the world’s most economically successful countries.
Biden’s trip drew a smaller press crowd than some other presidential foreign trips, due in part to the presidential transition, with fewer than 60 journalists, including TV support staff, registered for APEC credentials through the White House.