President Joe Biden shocked reporters Friday by showing up to the White House briefing room for the first time of his presidency.
As the Friday briefing moved past its scheduled hour, the door to the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room swung open to expose the 81-year-old president carrying a binder.
There were audible gasps in the room, as several journalists audibly greeted him.
‘My name’s Joe Biden,’ the president said. ‘Welcome to the swimming pool.’
The briefing room was famously constructed over the White House’s indoor swimming pool by order of President Richard Nixon to accommodate TV cameras.
The president took questions – but it his response while exiting that got the most attention.
A reporter shouted as he was exiting, ‘Do you want to reconsider dropping out of the race?’
‘I’m back in,’ he said grinning and then walked through the door.
President Joe Biden shocked reporters by showing up to the Friday White House press briefing – marking his first time addressing reporters in the room
‘I’m back in,’ President Joe Biden joked when a reporter asked as he departed the briefing room if he regretted dropping out of the presidential race
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (left) embraces President Joe Biden (right) during his surprise appearance at Friday’s briefing
The message he intended to give – sometimes showing his stutter – was highlighting new job numbers showing the unemployment rate dropping to 4.1 percent and a pause in the dockworkers strike.
Though many of the questions he was asked dealt with a looming war in the Middle East.
Biden suggested an Israeli attack on Iranian oil fields wouldn’t be ideal as a response to the rocket attack on Tel Aviv earlier this week.
‘If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about an alternative to striking oil fields,’ the president said.
He was also asked if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pushing off a ceasefire deal to meddle with ths U.S. election, as some Democrats have claimed.
‘No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None, none, none,’ Biden replied. ‘And I think Bibi should remember that if if he’s trying to influence the election or not. I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.’
Biden brushed off the fact that he hadn’t personally spoken to Netanyahu since the Iranian attack explaining that ‘our teams are in contact 12 hours a day.’
‘What I know is the plan that I put together received the support of the U.N. Security Council, the vast majority of our allies around the world, as a way to bring this to an end,’ the president said.
He asserted that Israel has ‘every right to respond to the vicious attacks on them.’
‘But the fact is that they have to be much more careful dealing with civilian casualties,’ Biden said.
Biden – and now Vice President Kamala Harris – have seen diminished support among Arab Americans over the way Israel has carried out the war in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas terror attack.
The president also wouldn’t say how he’s advised Israel to respond to the Iranian rocket attack.
‘That’s between me and them,’ he said.
He also tossed a few zingers toward his political opponents.
Asked about Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s assessment that the positive job numbers were ‘fake,’ the president replied: ‘If you notice, anything the MAGA Republicans don’t like, they call fake.’
‘Anything,’ he reiterated. ‘The job numbers are what the job numbers are.’
