On Sunday evening, Joe Biden hosted a barbecue at the White House. The following day, he called a lid, which meant that he had no media availability for the rest of the day. His schedule was bizarre, to say the least, since there’s a war going on in the Middle East for which he bears some responsibility.
White House Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Advisor Andrew Bates addressed the criticism Monday afternoon, insisting that just because a lid had been called didn’t mean that Biden had stopped working and cited a readout of Biden’s schedule.
“President Biden met this morning with Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer, Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients this morning for updates,” the schedule, which the White House shared to the press pool, said. “He directed his team to follow up on coordination with Israel on all aspects of the crisis and to continue their work with regional partners to warn anyone who might seek to take advantage in this situation. This afternoon, President Biden will be speaking with several of our close allies about the latest developments in Israel and we will have more to share soon.”
For those unfamiliar, a “lid” is just a courtesy announcement to reporters that they should not expect public events.
A lid does *not* mean the President has stopped working, as is implied in the *Fox* tweet below.
On the contrary, he’s working to support Israel all day: https://t.co/nHosKGW490 pic.twitter.com/z2RaElWzV0
— Andrew Bates (@AndrewJBates46) October 9, 2023
It sure sounds like Biden was really a busy bee on Monday, focusing all of his attention on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, but that’s not really the case. There was something the White House didn’t reveal until late Monday night: that Special Counsel Robert Hur, who is investigating Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, was interviewing the president.
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“The President has been interviewed as part of the investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Hur. The voluntary interview was conducted at the White House over two days, Sunday and Monday, and concluded Monday,” White House Counsel spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement. “As we have said from the beginning, the President and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation. We would refer other questions to the Justice Department at this time.”
Classified documents were not only found at his private office in the Penn Biden Center in Washington but also at his home in Wilmington, Del. Investigators found boxes with classified documents in his garage. The documents came from both his time as vice president and as a senator, when he had no authority to declassify the information. What makes the situation particularly troubling is that Hunter Biden was living at the house at various points while the documents were there, and there is evidence that suggests that Hunter had access to these documents and was using them for his business ventures.
Why didn’t the White House reveal what he was really doing over that two-day period from the beginning? Are we really supposed to believe the White House couldn’t have postponed the interview so Joe Biden could have been available more on Sunday and Monday?
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