China’s confrontational attempt to restrict media access to President Obama, over the objection of American staff, was a “misunderstanding” that doesn’t rise to the level of State Department involvement.
“I don’t think we also want to over-amplify that,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Tuesday. “There were some misunderstandings on the ground about some of the press movements. I’ll let the White House speak to that.”
Obama traveled to China for the G-20 summit last week, but they didn’t provide a staircase to descend from the main exit of Air Force One as is customary. A Chinese official also demanded that the White House press corps leave the arrival area, and tried to block two senior White House officials from joining Obama.
“At one point a White House official told him this was our president and our plane and the press wasn’t moving,” according to the pool report. “The man yelled, ‘This is our country.'”
The incident occurred on an overseas trip that had more than its share of diplomatic dustups. Obama cancelled a meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte after the new president said he would call Obama a “son of a bitch” in their meeting if Obama rebuked him for his policies.
“President Duterte explained that the press reports that President Obama would ‘lecture’ him on extrajudicial killings led to his strong comments, which in turn elicited concern,” Dutertes’ administration said in a statement to the press. “He regrets that his remarks to the press have caused much controversy.”
