President Obama ditched his press pool reporter for the second time this year, leaving the reporter at an event as he returned to the White House.
“Half the pool was stranded when the motorcade left the hotel with half empty press vans at 6:09 [pm],” the pooler reported. “Your stranded pool is told that the motorcade returned to the White House without incident.”
Obama spoke at the annual gala for the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAIC), non-profit group that works to develop Asian American leaders and politicians. The press pool attended the event with him, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, but did not make the return trip with Obama.
Though officially non-partisan, the group welcomed Obama by chanting “four more years!” until the president told them “have a seat” and “you’re making me blush.”
Obama previously left the press pool at the White House in January when he decided to attend his daughter’s basketball game on short notice.
Update: Here are details on “the pool saga,” as the pool report put it:
The pool saga.
Your pool rushed out of the ballroom as the president neared the end of the rope line. When we arrived at the top of a garage ramp, the press vans were not present with other motorcade vehicles.
A novice advance person did not know where the vans were. After she led the pool on a few dashes ending in dead ends, we were told the vans were on the far side of the hotel. Some members of the pool had made their way to the vans via another route. Led by staff, we ran around the hotel, just in time to see the motorcade depart.
The press vans did return to pick us up and bring us back to the White House, ending our ordeal on a Georgetown street.
