

Still, some anti-vaxx social media users, including Turning Point USA's Executive Director Charlie Kirk, claimed that Biden's vaccine booster event was evidence the administration was trying to pull one over on the public. Those events range from the president's climate summits with foreign leaders to economic meetings with local business officials, are closely covered by the White House press pool, and feature a rotating selection of sets, backdrops, flags, and other signage that corresponds with each event. Biden and Harris frequently host virtual policy meetings with a wide variety of participants that, before coronavirus, would have been conducted in-person at the White House or in EEOB conference rooms. "On most days, South Court Auditorium is a generic, stadium-style meeting room with four or five rows of seats space in the back of the room for cameras sitting on tripods a small buffer area in front of the stage for still photographers to capture the key moment and handy backstage doors for easy ingress and egress by the principals."įormer Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump used South Court to roll out high-level policy announcements, yet Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris use the space even more than their predecessors. "So, how did the mechanics of event production, and the auditorium itself, contribute to the wall-to-wall coverage?" he continues. "Presidents can fly on Air Force One across the country - or even around the world - for a photo worthy to print on the top of the fold of U.S.
#The white door events full#
"Every week in Washington has an element of theater and stagecraft, one side or another working to take full advantage of visual storytelling," King explained. With its easy access, the South Court site was welcomed by all."įormer White House events director Josh King claims the use of South Court is the latest iteration of "PoliOptics," a mashup of politics and optics used by "every modern president." White House staff, as well as presidents, would have to make their way there, too, though they had the luxury of an elevator.

"You have to slug your way up flights of stairs because the small elevators would hold only a limited number of people.


It was known as Room 450," Martha Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project and a politics professor at Towson University, told the Washington Examiner. "South Court Auditorium basically replaced the auditorium in the same building used by presidents for decades. It's located directly adjacent to the West Wing on the White House grounds.īIDEN BREAKS CAMPAIGN PROMISE OF NO CHAOS The auditorium itself was constructed during a renovation of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a large building housing both the Vice President's ceremonial offices and working spaces for the hundreds of White House officials who don't have offices in the White House itself.
