WHCA raises concern about press access to Biden meetings with Quad leaders

 The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) is raising concerns about press access to an upcoming meeting of “the Quad” world leaders.

President Biden is hosting leaders from India, Australia and Japan during a summit this weekend at his home in Delaware, which the WHCA says will be heavily restricted to the press.

“My understanding is that the current posture of the administration is for the press to only see the leaders drive in with no eyes, or cameras on POTUS in this historic moment,” group President Eugene Daniels wrote to the White House this week. “I can’t remember a time where this president has had a bilateral meeting on US soil and the press and therefore the American people were blocked from seeing it.”

FILE – U.S. President Joe Biden, from left, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a Quad meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit, at the Grand Prince Hotel in Hiroshima, western Japan, on May 20, 2023.

The White House and WHCA “have talked through different scenarios and possibilities for the pool to be able to cover these moments,” Daniels said.

“While we understand that there are security concerns, it’s essential for the public to have direct and independent press accounts of the greetings at the very least,” he added.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Quad is a consortium made up of the United States and the three other nations with the goal of working together to tackle issues of national security, economy and public health.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4890335-whca-press-access-biden-quad-summit-delaware/