Alabama's Morning News with JT
Jon Decker covers Biden meeting the press
now we go to washington d_c_ and our correspondent john decker who's at the white house and john the president might face the press tonight no he will face the press tonight that will be a five thirty in the afternoon tomorrow why would you say he might uh... follow that well i mean yeah i'm wondering if there might be a reason that he decides not to do it well no i mean it's it's on a schedule it's happening at five thirty p_m_ eastern time at the solo press conference is associated with the conclusion of the nato summit and uh... i'll be there i'll be credentialed for that and hopefully get a question so what what we what are you thinking you let us in on time i know you can't you can't divulge you don't want to say ahead of time the whole thing but what is your question going to pertain to nato or is it going to pertain to is he still in the race well i think you have to ask me to me you ask a question about both of those matters uh... the president bristles sometimes you know if he has a press conference and it's not concerning what it is that uh... he is having this press conference associated with so give you an example of the president had a press conference uh... in italy uh... it was a solo press conference it was on the heels of the g7 summit i attended that uh... and i think he wants to get a question regarding the g7 you could ask the question by the way a two-part question which you're asking not only about the nato summit but you're also asking a question about what's relevant what did they do which is joe biden whether he has the wherewithal to be president not only now but also four years from now uh... he's running for reelection so those are relevant a question to be asked to the president during the press conference and do we i guess we're looking not only for his verbal answer but also the way that he answers in terms of his body language and the way he stands all those sort of things i guess he'll be judged on that as well well you're right it's style it's substance uh... and uh... you know for good reason you know when you don't have press conferences solo press conferences with a regularity uh... and you have one on your schedule it obviously leads to increase scrutiny and there's going to be an incredible amount of scrutiny in terms of the president's performance this afternoon uh... if you had them on the schedule more regularly i don't think that people would pay that much of attention to them to begin with and also it comes exactly two weeks after that disastrous debate performance with former president donald trump so you know those are the reasons why this press conference in particular is getting so much attention well john we're going to be listening this afternoon the station will carry it as part of shawn handy show so we'll be listening this afternoon and uh... we're listening specifically for you to hear you uh... ask your question so i'm hoping that you get in there and then we can tell you about that yeah i hope so too john will see you know uh... it's it's up to uh... white house press team to determine that uh... who gets to ask the question to the president by the way that's no different uh... then what happens with formal press conferences with other presidents you know just to make that clear but hopefully i'm one of those people i i know that uh... i'd ask a fair question but i'd ask the question john that if you were in that room uh... later this afternoon you would ask a similar type of question and for that matter anyone who's listening to us talk right now would ask a similar question that's what i'm always thinking about when i ask questions of the president you know that's what i like about you john you know you you don't pull any punches but at the same time you you're you're fair and and you're you're going to ask a question that people want to know but you're going to do it in a respectful way because he is still the president of the united states well that's right i have a tremendous amount of respect for the office of the president uh... and regardless of who holds that office whether it's a democrat a republican you know this john i've covered the white house coming all the way back to bill clinton i always treat that uh... president with respect that being said uh... you know if they're tough questions to be asked to ask those tough questions uh... and you do it uh... to uh... illicit information uh... on behalf of the public you know that's what you have to remember it's not about you it's about the public and that's what i always think about when i have an opportunity to ask the question of the president john becker thank you so much for joining us