The highly-awaited Russian-American summit had an unexpected start Wednesday after a violent scuffle involving reporters and security agents at the venue of Villa La Grange, Geneva.
Shortly after they shook hands and took photos outside, Presidents Biden and Putin moved into the building to deliver some remarks to the press pool, or at least, that was what they thought.
“The media scuffle was the most chaotic your pooler has seen at a presidential event in nine years,” Politico’s White House reporter Anita Kumar said.
“Journalists pushed and shoved, yelling at each other to move but no one did. After just a minute or two, Russian security pulled the red rope separating the media from the leaders back to try to keep them away from the presidents.”
She added: “Russian security yelled at journalists to get out and began pushing journalists. Journalists and White House officials screamed back that the Russian security should stop touching us. Your pooler was pushed multiple times, nearly to the ground.”
Kumar said that both presidents looked on and listened to the chaotic scene unfolding right in front of them.
“They appeared amused by the scene. At one point, Biden leaned over and spoke to the interpreter and smiled.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refuted claims that President Biden had nodded in an answer to some question over trusting Putin.
“During a chaotic free for all with members of the press shouting questions over each other, the President gave a general head nod in the direction of the media,” Psaki said.
“He wasn’t responding to any question or anything other than the chaos.”
