White House Reporters Eye-Roll APEC
WASHINGTON 鈥斅燭he White House briefing on APEC Wednesday was serious stuff.
But before the session got started, a few reporters had more fun with the topic in casual conversations.
There was talk of mai tais and there were plenty of mock complaints about a global economic forum that some Washington reporters appeared to view as uninteresting.
Skeptics have long described APEC as “smoke, not substance,” as one New York Times columnist .
“Do you care about international cooperation?” one reporter asked a colleague before the briefing.
“No,” he replied. “All I want to do is see America’s first Pacific president make soaring speeches.”
“It’s going to suck,” the same reporter later said.
They joked about being stuck in a pool van 鈥斅爓here reporters who cover the president’s every move are required to sit and wait to catch a glimpse of him 鈥斅爓hile the president “is at Hanauma Bay.”
To be fair, when it was time to work, the press corps asked a long list of serious questions about trade agreements, the president’s scheduled meetings with world leaders and private sector giants like Boeing, and how the conference can be practically expected to affect U.S. job creation (read a related story for the White House’s response).
Reporters also questioned why President Barack Obama plans to stay in Hawaii on Monday, once APEC has formally wrapped. The president has a brunch fundraiser planned, but White House reporters wanted to know why he doesn’t immediately get moving to his next stop: Australia.
White House spokesman Ben Rhodes first explained the move as a scheduling decision, but also acknowledged that Hawaii has special meaning to Obama.
“It鈥檚 an opportunity for him to engage supporters in Hawaii, which is obviously a place where he has a lot of backing and a lot of roots,” Rhodes said.聽“So I think it also presents an opportunity for him to have that engagement.”
There were also a flurry of questions about the time differences between Washington and Hawaii, Australia and Indonesia, where Obama will conclude his trip.
“There will be a lot of time-zone humor throughout this trip,” a White House spokesman joked.
