White House defends Biden after president caught with reporter 'cheat sheet' during press conference

The White House on Thursday defended President Joe Biden's apparent use of a cheat sheet during a press conferencing, saying it is standard practice for the president to receive an advance briefing on the reporters present and their expected questions.

"It’s entirely normal for a president to be briefed on reporters who will be asking questions at a press conference and issues that we expect they might ask about," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing. "It is not surprising that yesterday we would anticipate questions that he did receive."

The press secretary then noted that she uses the daily White House press briefings as a guidepost for preparing the president, saying "the questions you all tell me... that's how we brief him as well."

She further denied that the White House had received any reporters' questions in advance and insisted the president's staff merely attempted to familiarize Biden with specific reporters and prepare him for their possible questions.

Her remarks come amid scrutiny of Biden over a photo that emerged of him holding a card with the image of LA Times reporter Courtney Subramanian and a question on it, leading to speculation that he had received advance knowledge of the questions.

The LA times denied that it had supplied Biden with questions in advance, saying that Subramanian's posting means "she is in regular contact with the White House press office seeking information for her reporting."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.