Press corps, Gibbs take hits in U.S.-China climate standoff

You know an international climate meeting is in rough waters when even the press corps are getting physical and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gets roughed up.

Here are two successive reports from the White House press pool about Obama’s second meeting Friday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the Copenhagen climate summit:

Pool spray pre-bilateral between Obama and Wen is a mess.



The Chinese press corps shoved their way into the small room where POTUS and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao were about to meet, preventing most of the American press pool from entering.

Robert Gibbs said something to the effect of "my people" (meaning American press corps) have to get into the room, "or we're leaving."

A few American media were able to get in, but your pooler and other non-broadcast reporters could not get in.

And then, a few minutes later . . .

At 7 p.m., President Obama began a meeting in the Bella Center that included Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, India’s P.M. Mammoghan Singh and Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Mr. Obama and the American delegation were the last to arrive, with Mr. Obama walking into the room and calling out from the door, “Mr. Premier, are you ready to see me? Are you ready?” 

Wen Jiabao was already sitting at the table. There was a lot of pushing and shoving from the Chinese cameramen assembling for the photo spray, and White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs and NSC chief of staff Denis McDonough both got roughed up a bit trying to get into the room.

Mr. Obama sat across from Mr. Wen. Also in the room were Gen. James L. Jones, the National Security Adviser, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

More pushing and shoving and the Secret Service kicked the press out.