White House bans New York Post from Biden event as Hunter indictment looms
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 2 years ago • 123 commentsBy: Steven Nelson (New York Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON — The White House press office barred The Post from attending President Biden's only daytime public event Monday as federal prosecutors near a decision on criminally charging first son Hunter Biden for tax fraud and other crimes.
The Post has closely covered the president's ties to his relatives' foreign dealings and first reported in October 2020 on files from Hunter's abandoned laptop that link Joe Biden to ventures in China and Ukraine.
Biden, who falsely characterized The Post's reporting as Russian disinformation, appeared with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to talk about airline policies in the White House-adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Biden ultimately took no shouted questions at the venue, which houses the set of a "fake" White House and about 50 theater-style seats for reporters — about 20 of which were empty Monday.
In the same room this February, Biden chose to answer The Post's query about whether his family's links to China compromised his ability to steer US policy. He fumed about the lack of "polite" reporters and stormed out.
The Post has the fifth-largest news website by US readership — or fourth when excluding aggregator MSN. It is the nation's second-most-read newspaper online and as of last year, The Post had the fifth-largest print circulation.
In a Monday email, however, White House staff said: "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."
The White House did not allow The Post into a press event with the president. MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock There were about 20 empty press seats at Biden's Monday event.Diana Glebova
The email does not claim that the exclusion is due to "space limitations" — an excuse that was used until recently to justify the press office's mysterious prescreening of reporters let into large presidential events, which under past administrations were open to all journalists on White House grounds.
In June 2022, 73 journalists representing nearly two-thirds of White House briefing room seats signed a letter demanding the end of the mysterious prescreening process for events. But the unprecedented access restrictions remained in place and press officers refuse to explain the criteria for selection even to leaders of the White House Correspondents' Association.
The criminal investigation of Hunter Biden, meanwhile, appears to be nearing its end. His legal team met with Justice Department lawyers on April 26 in Washington in what could be a final step before a charging decision.
President Biden attracted attention by attending church in Washington Sunday with his younger brother James Biden, who partnered with Hunter on a variety of international dealings.
On Friday, the president declined to take reporter questions by falsely claiming he would host a "major news conference" that afternoon — two days after House Republicans subpoenaed the FBI for a file that a whistleblower said alleged that Joe Biden took bribes.
Instead, Biden sat for a Friday night interview with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle, who gently approached investigations of the first family's business dealings.
"While there's no ties to you, your own son could be charged by your Department of Justice … how will that impact your presidency?" Ruhle asked.
Biden replied, "It will not because he has done nothing wrong. And I'm proud of him."
There actually are extensive ties between President Biden and his son's business dealings — and congressional Republicans have subpoenaed bank records of Biden family associates and reviewed bank Suspicious Activity Reports in an effort to track the flow of funds.
The ban comes as federal prosecutors decide whether to indict Hunter Biden.
Hunter and James Biden allegedly involved their powerful relative in many business relationships.
In 2013, Hunter co-founded with Chinese state entities BHR Partners, which was registered 12 days after he joined then-VP Biden aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hunter introduced his dad to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during the trip to China's capital and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li's children. The current status of Hunter's 10% stake in the firm, which says it manages nearly $2.2 billion in assets, remains unclear.
In a different Chinese venture, Hunter and James Biden received at least $4.8 million in 2017 and 2018 from CEFC China Energy. Joe Biden was referred to as the "big guy" in a May 2017 email that said he was due a 10% cut, and an October 2017 email from first son Hunter Biden's laptop identifies Joe Biden as a participant in a call about CEFC's attempt to purchase US natural gas.
The Post has extensively reported on Hunter Biden's business dealings.
In 2015, Joe Biden hosted his son's Mexican business associates at the vice president's residence in Washington. In 2016, Hunter Biden emailed one of them, Miguel Aleman Magnani — apparently while en route to Mexico aboard Air Force Two with yet another business associate — complaining that he hadn't received reciprocal business favors.
At an April 16, 2015, dinner at DC's Cafe Milano, then-VP Biden joined his son and a small group including Vadym Pozharskyi of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma — which paid Hunter up to $1 million per year to serve on its board — a three-person Kazakhstani delegation and Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina and her husband, former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov.
Baturina allegedly paid $3.5 million to a firm associated with Hunter Biden in February 2014 as she sought out US property investments. Baturina and another Russian billionaire who sought out US property investments with Hunter Biden have avoided President Biden's sanctions against Russia's business elite over the more than one-year war in Ukraine.
The family's overlapping political and business dealings began even before Biden's eight-year vice presidency.
In 2006, when Biden was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, James Biden openly boasted about selling influence on his brother as he and Hunter Biden sought to take over a hedge fund based in New York, according to the book "The Bidens: Inside the First Family's Fifty-Year Rise to Power" by Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger.
"Don't worry about investors," James Biden allegedly told a corporate executive. "We've got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden … We've got investors lined up in a line of 747s filled with cash."
After his father assumed the presidency, Hunter Biden launched an art career seeking as much as $500,000 for his novice works. The House Oversight Committee is demanding that Hunter's Manhattan art dealer Georges Berges hand over a list of buyers.
The White House did not respond to questions from The Post about the exclusion from Monday's presidential event. At least two other journalists initially were barred, but the press office relented and let one of them in.
In addition to prescreening reporters let into Biden's events — which critics say sets a troubling precedent for press access — the White House moved Friday to close a longstanding legal loophole that prevented authorities from stripping reporters of press badges and unveiled a formal process to do so.
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They can censor the news and news outlets but come tomorrow the nation will hear about a document that the FBI has been sitting on since 2020....since before the election. Joe's supporters in the government can't keep covering for him at this pace. Tomorrow, he takes a big hit.
Is this why Susan Rice left recently?
Even rats are smart enough to flee a sinking ship.
She will be back of course- rats always return as well.
I'm not sure that rats would like being compared to progressives, but I think it's a fair analogy.
no POS alt-right or murdoch owned media belongs in the white house press corp. those chairs are reserved for legitimate journalists and news organizations.
LMAO - do let us know when any show up. There's a reason why public trust in news organizations has fallen to 34% which is only five points more favorable than the public trust in Congress. News organizations today are only interested in their bottom line and pushing their agenda to improve their bottom line and journalists are quick to learn how to do business in their organizations or are quickly shown the door.
be sure and let us all know when the $787.5 million benchmark for defamation has been exceeded.
Your statement seems to indicate that you approve of censorship and that you are against the First Amendment and a free press.
if they're going to lie about what he says, why can't they lie about being there in the first place?
Just as soon as you let us know when an honest journalist and news organization shows up to the White House.
like compared to any murdoch owned media outlet?
The lies are being told by Biden...none are being told about him
Thanks for clarifying my simple comment to comment 1.2.5 .
Biden administration has spread misinformation at least 27 times in the last two weeks
I think they'll take the childish route and attack the source.
Either way it all sounds like sniveling of children.
I’m old enough to remember when democrats defended the press.
That was back when the ACLU & the old liberals fought for civil liberties.
Oh ya, those days are long gone.
ACLU nowadays = American Civil Leftist Union.
Now it's all radical left causes and the ACLU has enriched itself because of that very move.
It is also whatever they consider to be high profile enough to generate significant publicity. Several years ago I was terminated from a position at a small rural hospital due to my age. I went to the local ACLU office here in Arizona hoping to file a age discrimination lawsuit. When I explained my case the representative leaned across his desk and told me point blank that they would not even consider my case as it was just not high profile enough. So much for a organization that started out with the idea of trying to protect and look out for the people on the lower end of the spectrum.
Even the lying Times had to admit it:
An organization that has defended the First Amendment rights of Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan is split by an internal debate over whether supporting progressive causes is more important.
That debate is long over
And they cried that is was a suppression of the 1st amendment when a news outlet wasn't permitted access to specific events.
I saw that interview...his speech was slurred and he appeared to be drugged.
The day of reckoning is near.
He also mentioned Memorial Day weekend.
It's confusing.... What did he say?
That's how he almost always is ... unless he's shouting at us or aimlessly wandering. Sundowning, for sure.
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What has the Gateway Pundit got to do with this, John?
I'm just wondering. You like to complain about the media and the white house. Did you complain when Trump gave White House credentials to a conspiracy and fake news site which is so extreme it is banned by Newstalkers?
Just wondering.
Oh, that's your point!
So you are defending censorship?
And you are also wrong to compare the New York Post to the Gateway Pundit.
Wrong for 2 reasons.
Some people need to divert our attention when the Biden administration acts like an authoritarian regime.
Others like to call that obvious truth "stupid."
Do they know that CNN invited Trump to a town hall and Trump accepted?
Just wondering. Why are you deflecting from the actual article.
[deleted]
it's more fact based than the thumper owner's manual...
Deflection and denial...it's all you've got.
The dumbest people here think they are clever. It is a mystery.
The New York Post is a right wing rag owned by Rupert Murdoch who is the architect of anthropogenic climate change denialism. News Corp/Fox News is nothing but a far right wing propaganda outlet.
Yet its accurate reporting is censored..
An honest person would probably rethink what the propaganda outlet is at that point, but some people persist in dishonesty.
The New York Post was 100% right about the Hunter laptop story.
You know, the one the dishonest media and our dishonest government suppressed.
John seems to be saying that certain news sites should be banned from even asking questions.
It's deflecting from what he knows is indefensible.
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John, why the need to get personal?
People dont care about Hunter Biden.
Are we going to have to listen to endless right wing manufactured news about him?
The New York Post is the newspaper version of Fox News Channel on television. It is far more biased than the New York Times is.
Trump once kicked a CNN reporter out of a white house briefing WHILE IT WAS GOING ON, because he didnt like the line of questioning. Did you complain about "freedom of the press" at that time?
You keep saying that, but it's about fucking JOE!
Are we going to have to listen to endless right wing manufactured news about him?
Right now we just want the FBI to turn over a document. There will also be a statement tomorrow.
The New York Post is the newspaper version of Fox News Channel on television. It is far more biased than the New York Times is.
That's 3 times you were wrong in a single sentence.
Trump once kicked a CNN reporter out of a white house briefing WHILE IT WAS GOING ON, because he didnt like the line of questioning.
You mean DEBATING. Trump faced a very hostile press corps. The same assholes that let the moronic Karine Jean-Pierre make ridiculous statements.
Did you complain about "freedom of the press" at that time?
The press has only been denied by Obama and Biden. The left, now that it is in power, no longer believes in basic freedoms.
[deleted]
There is the healing power of laughter!
KJP has repeatedly and blatantly LIED to the press and America, Vic. Speaking of moronic, she recently said that Memorial Day is all about family visiting each other.
AND that is all the voters are focused on right now: Memorial Day!
Voters are focused on a hellova lot more than Memorial Day right now. Sad that the Biden Administration doesn't care.
I hope you'll take a moment to reread comment 6.1.9 , because I never mentioned Hunter Biden.
It's not their fault. They are too tied up working on the Hillary indictment which will come out any day now.....
Certain news sites only exist to provide far right wing propaganda and outright lies.
I am 100% in favor of revoking Rupert Murdoch's U.S. citizenship.
He has done more harm to America than anybody else ever.
Rupert Murdoch weaponized America's sub 90 IQ fascists.
In addition to being stupid.
and Texan 6.3.3
Whether people like it or not, in 1985 Rupert Murdoch renounced his Australian citizenship and became a naturalized US citizen. The DoJ has very specific reasons as to how a naturalized citizen could lose his/her citizenship, and none of them include we don't like him :
It seems that the White House feels like it is in a "feud" with the New York Post.
Is that desirable? No.
Is it evidence of stifling of freedom of the press? No.
This sort of thing has happened many times before with other presidents.
But the right gets overhyperventilated about it.
I particularly like the irony of this one
You got to give it up John. Nobody here has ever vouched for the Gateway Pundit as being a news source. The New York Post IS a NEWS SOURCE.
And John, it is being barred because it TOLD THE TRUTH.
Donald Trump vouched for Gateway Pundit as a news source.
Donald Trump IS NOT A MEMBER HERE!
Trump press ban: BBC, CNN and Guardian denied access to briefing
The Guardian, New York Times, CNN and more were barred from ‘gaggle’ hours after Trump once again called much of the media an ‘enemy of American people’
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Give it a rest.
Melania Trump says it would be “a privilege” to serve as first lady again
Many independents are now saying we have seen both sides now. Now we know what we are voting for!
You give it a rest.
The Democrats and leftists screamed bloody murder when that happened.
Democrats are supposed to be better than Republicans- instead they are far worse hypocrites.
Free speech = only speech that leftists agree with. Freedom of the press = only press that gives good coverage to Brandon and Democrats.
This is going to be my last comment on this seed because it is getting boring
'The Blacklist': Here are the media outlets banned by Donald Trump
The Washington Post is not the first. Donald Trump has been denying press credentials to news outlets for nearly a year.
It's become known in media circles as "the blacklist" -- a running catalog of newsrooms deemed by Trump to be unfair and banned from his campaign events accordingly.
The list includes an assortment of digital outlets, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the country, a premiere local newspaper and -- now, with The Post -- one of the most prestigious news organizations in the world.
In some cases, reporters from the offending outlets can still attend Trump campaign rallies as members of the general public, but without the access and privileges that press credentials provide. In other situations, like press conferences, the reporters cannot attend at all.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks declined to comment for this story, but aides have previously said the practice of banning certain reporters is a logical response to what they consider to be unfair treatment. But a wide array of news media advocates have condemned the behavior and expressed concern that it could have a chilling effect on other outlets' coverage of Trump. The Clinton campaign does not have an equivalent pattern of revoking press credentials.
Here's a look at the news outlets Trump has blocked:
· Univision was first banned by Trump due to the candidate's litigation against the company last summer. His $500 million lawsuit was prompted by Univision's decision to cancel the broadcast of Trump's Miss USA pageant.
The two sides settled the lawsuit in February, but Univision's access has still been limited. A spokesman for the Spanish-language broadcaster said that reporters there have only been granted credentials twice.
Most of the time, Trump's aides ignore Univision's requests, and if the campaign does respond, it's typically to say that the request was too late, the network says.
· BuzzFeed was probably doomed before the campaign even started. In 2014, political reporter McKay Coppins penned a lengthy profile of Trump that infuriated the former reality TV star.
Now that he's followed through on his White House bid, Trump has gotten revenge on BuzzFeed with a steady denial of access. Editor-in-chief Ben Smith said the site's reporters have "never been credentialed," and have been routinely turned away from Trump events throughout the campaign.
"I think McKay's profile holds up extremely well, and I'm proud that we've chosen not to compromise our coverage in any way in exchange for access," Smith said.
· Politico found itself on the "blacklist" back in March when reporter Ben Schreckinger was denied entry to a Trump press conference in Florida. The campaign never provided an explanation, but Schreckinger was denied after writing a story about concerns surrounding the temperament of Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Schreckinger had a similar run-in earlier this month when he was ejected from a Trump event in California by a campaign staffer and private security guard. The reporter attended the event with a general admission ticket because he had already been denied a press credential.
It apparently goes beyond Schreckinger. Politico editor Susan Glasser said that the site's journalists "have repeatedly been denied credentials by the Trump campaign."
"We now appear to be subject to a complete blacklist," Glasser said. "We believe this is nothing more and nothing less than an attempt to stop independent coverage of the campaign and steps on the basic rights of journalists to exercise their constitutionally protected role in our political system."
· The Daily Beast has been subject to what Noah Shachtman, the executive editor, calls a "slow rolling blacklist."
"We were never a Trump favorite, but things got very frosty after we published a story last year about allegations that Ivana Trump made and later walked back about Donald Trump," Shachtman said. Tim Mak, who wrote the story, "was the first of our reporters to be cut off," he said, and "by the time the New Hampshire primary rolled around, even our freelancers were getting cut off."
Like the other news outlets on this list, The Daily Beast continues to cover the Trump campaign without receiving press credentials for events.
· The Huffington Post has seen its reporters shunned by the Trump campaign from almost the beginning. The liberal-leaning news site infuriated Trump when it placed all coverage of his campaign in the entertainment section. Last July, Trump's campaign stop credentialing Scott Conroy, then HuffPost's senior political reporter. In September, a reporter covering the GOP primary for HuffPost was denied credentials at a Trump campaign event in Iowa.
HuffPost stopped covering Trump in the entertainment section in December, but the campaign's credential ban has persisted. It's safe to predict it will continue now that the site has hired Michelle Fields, who had Trump's campaign manager charged with battery, to cover the presumptive GOP nominee.
"None of us get credentialed," Grim said at the time of the hire last month. "I assume that'll be the case for her."
· The Des Moines Register traditionally plays an outsized role in presidential election coverage, given its status as the preeminent newspaper in the important state of Iowa. But with the 2016 campaign just getting warmed up last July, the paper was denied press credentials to a Trump event.
The Trump campaign didn't dance around the reason why. That same week, the Register had published an editorial calling on Trump to drop out of the race.
"We're not issuing credentials to anyone from The Des Moines Register based on the editorial that they wrote earlier in the week," Lewandowski said in a statement at the time.
Amalie Nash, executive editor and vice president for news and engagement at the paper, said Tuesday that the ban "continued throughout the duration of the caucus cycle. We were never granted credentials to another event after publishing this editorial last July."
Since Trump has not been back in Iowa, "we haven't had occasion to apply for credentials since the caucuses," Nash said.
Do you even read what you post?
a running catalog of newsrooms deemed by Trump to be unfair and banned from his campaign events accordingly.
You and your whatabout BS. Don't you know the difference between a presidential press conference and an election campaign?
It's too bad that Biden couldn't be more like Trump when it came to being a president.
Ah. The ole but but but Trump defense. For someone that hates trump so much it seems you defend biden because trump did it alot.
Give it a rest.
It is amazing how trump is the democrats new standard of acceptable behavior.
He's always been the Republican right's standard for acceptable behavior.
I wonder if Biden came out and said its ok for him to molest women because its been going on "for a million years" and he's a star, what would be the conservatives reaction to that. They had no reaction when Trump said it so I assume they would say nothing about Biden either. /s
Not really amazing at all. The left has been fawning over him for years.
e's always been the Republican right's standard for acceptable behavior.
Do those people spend their time obsessively calling Trump a threat to Democracy, the worst President in history, a traitor etc..?
Because if you believe those things, which you obviously don't, than it would be unthinkable to cite Trump as precedent. Your problem with Trump is just that he didn't run with a D after his name.
Yet you always seem to use what he has done as a standard for if it is OK when a Dem does it.
Hunter Biden filed his taxes late a couple of years though he has since remedied that situation. Also, he is supposedly being investigated for a vague gun charge. None of these would be much of a big deal if he wasn't Biden's son and they certainly do not indicate any wrongdoing by the President!
President and Jill Biden's taxes have been made public for the last twenty years and there is no credible proof they ever profited unlawfully...
Unlike the former President and his lawless klan.
With the help of a rich Hollywood lawyer...
It must be nice to have rich friends help you out even if they don't want ANY HELP from his dad...
I would hope that you would agree that it should be investigated however. Biden promised during his campaign that his would be the most transparent administration but he has yet to meet that promise.
I guess when one have nothing *** to add all they can do is attack the source. Either prove the articles are wrong or fuck off.
And you killed your whole comment with one final unfounded steaming pile sentence. Stick with memes.
Now do Trump and DeSantis. If Hunter Biden broke any laws charge him. The Trump family has already stolen from charities for cancer, animals, veterans and other fake charities where they had to admit guilt and take remedial courses in how to run a charity to avoid prosecution. So if Hunter Biden did worse then charge him and throw the book at him. The problem with how right wing voters look for any "gotcha" moment is that they never want to deal with Republican corruption. Democrats say have at it no matter who it is.
The Republicans dont give a damn about Hunter Biden. They want to stretch this out for the next year and a half so it remains an "issue" in the presidential race. That is all they want. If they cared about corruption we wouldnt be plagued with the Trump family in politics.
What the Republicans are doing is trying to find any kind of evidence of corruption and malfeasance by Biden and Hunter as they can. There is likely to be some there, thus the need for an depth investigation. You're trying delink father and son, but they're in this together as a family