CNN Spikes Ball on Joe Biden After Reporter ‘Cheat Sheet’ Controversy Blows Up

As per the norm, President Joe Biden had some pretty eye-opening moments Wednesday during a Rose Garden press conference alongside South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, with something Biden did as he prepared to take questions from the White House press corps causing a firestorm of controversy.

RedState reported on how photographers at the event snagged images of what appeared to be a “cheat sheet” of sorts in Biden’s hand with the name and photo of Los Angeles Times reporter Courtney Subramanian shown along with “Question #1” written above it. Below that information was a question that read as follows:

“How are YOU squaring YOUR domestic priorities — like reshoring semiconductors manufacturing — with alliance-based foreign policy?”

There was more below what was typed that was not clearly visible enough to make out.

But the question shown appeared to be a simplified version of what was asked, as the White House transcript indicates:

“Your top economic priority has been to build up U.S. domestic manufacturing in competition with China. But your rules again- — against expanding chip manufacturing in China is hurting South Korean companies that rely heavily on Beijing. Are you damaging a key ally in the competition with China to help your domestic politics ahead of the election?”

Indeed, here’s how it went down, for those who missed it:

Joe Biden gets caught RED-HANDED using a CHEAT SHEET of reporters INCLUDING the very questions that they're going to ask…

…and the reporters go along with it! pic.twitter.com/bWT5ae1Qow

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 26, 2023

CNN’s Don Lemon-less “This Morning” program reported on the moment Thursday, with co-host Kaitlan Collins interviewing White House correspondent Arlette Saenz on what happened.

While Saenz noted that the question asked technically “was not identical” to what was on the cheat sheet and that the L.A. Times denied pre-submitting any questions to the Biden team for approval, at the end of the segment, Collins dinged the Biden White House, pointing out that though they did have a press conference yesterday for a change that “there have been historically few press conferences in this administration,” a statement which had Saenz nodding in agreement.

Watch:

CNN: Republicans "seizing" on reporters asking Biden scripted questions pic.twitter.com/BlylBM5A3p

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 27, 2023

Collins was likely working off of a New York Times report from six days ago which called out Biden’s lack of press availability, comparing it to presidents all the way back to Calvin Coolidge:

In the 100 years since Calvin Coolidge took office, only Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan held as few news conferences each year as the current occupant of the Oval Office.

[…]

And despite his press secretary pledging that Mr. Biden would “bring transparency and truth back to the government,” the president has granted the fewest interviews since Mr. Reagan was president: only 54. (Donald J. Trump gave 202 during the first two years of his presidency; Barack Obama gave 275.)

[…]

According to The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Mr. Biden averaged 10 news conferences per year during his first two years in office, including 11 solo sessions and nine with foreign leaders. Mr. Trump averaged 19.5 during that same period. Mr. Obama averaged 23, and Mr. Clinton averaged 41.5. Herbert Hoover averaged 82 news conferences, while Mr. Coolidge held an average of 90 each year.

Mr. Nixon and Mr. Reagan both averaged seven news conferences in their first two years, though Mr. Reagan’s average was cut short by the assassination attempt in March of his first year in office.

So much for “transparency” and wanting to “restore respect” between the White House and the Oval Office, as Biden promised to do prior to the 2020 presidential election.

This is all by design, of course. And though, as the Times observed, the White House will tell you that this is all “part of a deliberate strategy to go around the traditional news media to connect with audiences ‘where they are,'” Joe Biden’s infamous penchant for gaffes, flubs, and highly embarrassing moments, including some that have caused tensions internationally, are at the core of why his public appearances are so tightly scripted, choreographed, and staged.

And apparently with pre-approved questions submitted by the press to go along with it.