When PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN stepped to the presidential lectern on a Balinese patio festooned with fringed illuminated umbrellas Monday night, he delivered a clear message: this aggression will not stand, man. That message wasn’t for China’s XI JINPING. It was for the White House press corps. “There are going to be four questioners, but I’m not going to do 10 questions from each questioner,” he said. Five days ago, when he began the Q&A portion of his post-election press conference , Biden had tried to impose order. He noted that the 10 reporters he planned to call on “were supposed to ask me one question.” But, to some light laughter, he conceded, “I’m sure you’ll ask me more.” Sure enough, no reporter asked fewer than two questions. Several asked three, and a couple were bold enough to ask four. Another deadpanned he had “37 questions,” before asking two. Giddy as the White House was about the midterm elections, many staffers were also frustrated that the press conference became a free-for-all. Biden, who had a hard out because of a call shortly after with House GOP Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY, only got through nine of the 10 reporters on his list. Some journalists shared the staff’s frustration that those called on, most notably the television correspondents, asked so many questions, eliminating the chance that they could get a stray one in. There was even some chatter about getting the White House Correspondents Association to intervene with new guidelines for those exceedingly rare press conferences, so that opportunities to pose the president a question are more evenly distributed. The organization has stayed out of it. On Monday night at the G-20 summit in Bali, Biden himself took a stand. He made sure that his request for reporters to stick to a single question was not a joke – saying, essentially, there are rules . Throughout the day, the White House sent subtle but clear signals the press conference in Indonesia would look different than last week’s. Rumors circulated that most questions would go to outlets that did not get a chance to ask one a few days prior; and that, therefore, TV outlets were likely to be avoided. As the day went on, White House press aides kept tabs on which reporters would be in the post-Xi news conference. Some who got questions said that staffers reached out to them during the day, as well. Moreover, White House staffers made sure a few reporters – all of whom got questions – had prominent seats near Biden’s podium and along an aisle, allowing a staffer to bring them a microphone. Breaking with the tradition of calling first on the Associated Press, Biden began with the Wall Street Journal – the outlet that had been No. 10 on his list last week. Two of the four outlets that got questions Monday were also called on last week (AP and Reuters, both of which, an administration official said, were less flagrant about stretching out their questioning). Given how much money television networks spend to send large crews to cover the president’s international trips – a one-way charter flight between Phnom Penh and Bali ended up costing more than $5,000 per seat – Biden’s snubbing of TV row would normally trigger an avalanche of grievance. But that wasn’t the case this time. According to several reporters in Bali, there were scattered grumbles from the TV correspondents afterward but they were relatively muted. Biden did respond briefly to a question NBC’s PETER ALEXANDER shouted as the president ended the press conference. Biden — who acknowledged he was battling a cold — kept his answers short and seemed intent on not making much news. The news conference was held outdoors in Bali’s sweltering heat and humidity and most present, our JONATHAN LEMIRE reported, were likely grateful for the event to end so everyone could go find air conditioning. At the end of the day, they are all still in Bali, as Biden noted just before departing. “I guess all of you are going swimming from here,” he said. MESSAGE US — Are you LUCAS ACOSTA, director of broadcast media? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com .
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