Shortly after President Barack Obama set wheels down Saturday in Hangzhou, China his National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice, members of his entourage and the press corps tangled with Chinese officials both on the flight line and at the West Lake State House minutes before Obama’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jingpin.
“A bit of chaos on the Tarmac,” read the feed from the White House press pool report byWall Street Journal reporter Carol Lee.
Pool was brought under the wing of AF1 per usual but the scene was not per usual. There were no stairs to the top door to AF1, instead President Obama exited via the lower level stairs so pool could hardly see him, and only for a split second as he exited at 2:30 p.m. A member of the Chinese delegation was screaming at White House staff from the moment pool got onto the tarmac. He wanted he US press to leave. The Chinese had put up a blue rope under the wing so pool had to stand behind it. This man was demanding the pool, which was behind the blue rope, get away from the arrival scene altogether. At one point a White House official told him this was our president and our plane and the press wasn’t moving. – READ MORE
