President Joe Biden met with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres where the US head of state reaffirmed the close relationship between America and the global body. But reporters were aggressively ushered out of the room after some began questioning Mr Biden about the migrant crisis happening in the US. The president sheepishly lifted his mask and stared wide-eyed at Mr Guterres with handlers blocking reporters from taking photos and asking questions.
Mr Biden met with Mr Guterres ahead of his speech to the UN on Tuesday and discussed how the US and UN could work together to tackle COVID-19 and climate change.
But handlers shooed reporters out of the room, telling them “let’s go” and shouting over their questions by saying “thank you” repeatedly.
Reporters demanded answers to the southern border crisis in the US which is seeing tens of thousands of migrants, mainly from Haiti, set up camps at the Texan border.
In August, US authorities arrested more than 195,000 migrants at the Mexican border, according to government data released on Wednesday.
It comes as Mr Biden has reportedly been told off by handlers behind the scenes for going “off-script” during speeches and answering questions with the president also avoiding reporters over this past week.
Politico also reports some handlers refuse to watch Mr Biden’s public appearances live as they get annoyed at his ad-libbing.
The UN video is not the only occurrence of Mr Biden being censored or protected from the public.
During his labor day speech, Mr Biden turned to the audience and said: “Now, I’m supposed to stop and walk out of the room here.
“Because of the challenges we face today in ending COVID-19 and dealing with the gravest threat to humanity we’ve ever seen, which is the whole climate crisis…we’re undergoing that can only be met with global solutions, no one country can – no 10 countries can do it.”
Mr Biden also delivered a speech at the UN general assembly where he backed America’s drive to protect allies.
He told the UN: “US military power must be our tool of last resort, not our first.
“It should not be used as an answer to every problem we see around the world.”