In what appears to have become his go-to ritual, President Joe Biden was once again seen calling on a pre-approved list of reporters following his G-20 climate summit meetings with world leaders in Rome.

After opening with remarks to reporters about his discussions with various leaders, Biden said, “And now I’m happy to take some questions. And I’m told I should start with AP,  Zeke Miller.”

The latest eye-raising comments from Biden are far from the first time he has implied that his staff is calling the shots, rather than him, despite his being – at least on paper – the most powerful man in the world.

In April, the president told reporters that he was “gonna be in trouble” if he continued taking questions from reporters during a rare back-and-forth.

In June, following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden implied that he was following rules given to him by behind-the-scenes staffers regarding calling on reporters.

“I’ll take your questions, and as usual, folks, they gave me a list of the people I’m going to call on,” Biden told a group of reporters after his summit with Putin, who reportedly pushed the US president around on a number of issues.

And again in August, after making himself to reporters for the first time in over a week following the ISIS-K bombing in Kabul that killed 13 US servicemen, Biden said that he had been “instructed” to call on a specific reporter.

This latest instance of the president of the United States apparently being constrained by his staff over who can ask him questions pertaining to world affairs has many questioning yet again who is really in charge at the White House.

{YWN World Headquarters – NYC}