Missing marine guard post outside West Wing raises White House questions

The absence of a naval outpost outside the West Wing on Monday has raised questions about whether President Biden is keeping to the schedule his assistants keep public.

Why it matters: A certain way to know if the president is inside the Oval Office is when the spear-colored Navy is at the post and opens the door to the West Wing. A pool reporter who asked if there had been a change in policy got a simpler answer around 2021: the Navy gets a COVID test.

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  • “The president was in the Oval Office this morning receiving the PDB and all the things you know from the schedule. There was no change in policy,” Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, told the daily. said. information session.

The back story: According to Biden’s schedule, he would be in the Oval to receive the Presidential Daily Briefing at 9:45 p.m. The guard was absent at the time.

  • Pooler Debra Saunders, correspondent in the White House of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, told her campus colleagues at 9:58 a.m.: ‘There is no Marine standing outside the front door … The Marine is apparently not no more an indication. that POTUS is in the oval. ‘

  • Psaki and other helpers later clarified.

Bottom line: The White House says it is a ‘misnomer’ that a Marine should be present when the president is inside the Oval.

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