President Joe Biden has stepped back from using the Oval Office for press events because of complications about using a smaller teleprompter and has opted for the 'fake' White House set where there is a bigger screen, according to a report.
Biden for months has sometimes shifted events to the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building – a renovated venue with changing digital images of the White House just a short walk away from the real thing.
But it might not be the high-tech lighting and digital features that make it appealing to the president's press staff.
The White House 'has largely abandoned using the Oval Office for press events in part because it can’t be permanently equipped with a teleprompter,' Politico reported in a story about a potential Biden rematch with former President Donald Trump.
Biden's aides 'prefer' the other venue for events, 'sacrificing some of the power of the historic backdrop in favor of an otherwise sterile room that was outfitted with an easily read teleprompter screen.'
President Joe Biden (C) meets with small business owners in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, USA, 28 April 2022. Aides sometimes set up events in the 'fake' White House just steps away from the real one. It has a large screen teleprompter set up
That was a reference to the large monitor set up right across from where Biden usually stands. The venue also makes it easy to control where the press are stationed, and allows Biden to walk away quickly if he doesn't want to take questions.
Biden made frequent use of it in earlier stages of the pandemic when his travel was severely curtailed, and it also works for zoom events.
Biden does sometimes invite the press into the Oval Office, including when he has met with world leaders, sometimes in front of a roaring
