White House roasted for saying Biden will give a ‘big boy press conference’: ‘Potty training next?’

The White House has been roasted for promising President Joe Biden will give a “big boy press conference” as part of the three-day Nato summit of world leaders beginning Tuesday in Washington DC.

In Monday’s White House press briefing, John Kirby, the White House’s national security communications adviser, raised eyebrows with his choice of phrase – coming at a time when the embattled president is facing growing calls to quit the 2024 race.

“The president will hold a press conference… a big boy press conference we’re calling it,” he said, with a nod to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who responded with a grin in the affirmative.

Kirby’s tongue-in-cheek reference was actually a callback to an exchange last week between Jean-Pierre and Bloomberg journalist Justin Sink, who had asked her about the White House’s alleged strategy of shielding the president from “impromptu” settings in light of his disastrous presidential debate performance.

The press secretary had denied that Biden had anything to hide regarding his competence for office and duly promised a “solo” press conference from the president, which prompted Sink to ask for more specifics: “Is that gonna be kind of the real, big boy press conference that we’re used to or…”

“Did you just say ‘big boy press conference’?” she responded, as fellow members of the press corps broke up laughing.

“Big Boy Justin over there… was asking some big boy questions,” Jean-Pierre joked.

A viral clip of Kirby using the phrase on Monday nevertheless prompted plenty of context-free ridicule.

Sky News host Gabriella Power observed that the use of such a phrase is “not making it any easier” for voters to take the administration seriously.

The network’s Danica De Giorgio then chimed in: