Tipsheet

Biden Tries to Build Back Butter with BTS Presser, Oval Office Meeting

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  June 01, 2022 8:15 PM

This week, the Biden administration held a star-studded White House press briefing with K-pop group BTS.

You heard that right. It's not a Babylon Bee headline.

At the conclusion of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month, the seven-member Korean boy band was trotted out as the Biden administration's poster child for Asian inclusion. BTS stood with top Biden administration officials in the White House briefing room Tuesday afternoon and later joined President Joe Biden in a closed-door meeting to discuss the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S.

In a Thursday statement, the White House announced that the U.S. president and BTS would talk about the "importance of diversity and inclusion" and the Grammy-nominated musical supergroup's multinational platform as "youth ambassadors who spread a message of hope and positivity across the world."

Early on Tuesday morning, the verified Twitter account for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders added that BTS would appear alongside Biden's press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the top of the presser as part of the band's visit aimed at exploring the topic of Asian representation.

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Before delivering translated remarks at the press conference addressing anti-Asian violence and discrimination, the South Korean singers in matching black suits followed single-file behind a peppy Jean-Pierre.

While standing in front of the White House podium, Jean-Pierre declared that Biden has "led a historic whole-of-government approach to combat racism, xenophobia, and intolerance facing AANHPI communities." Among the commander-in-chief's efforts, Jean-Pierre touted how Biden issued a presidential memorandum within his first days in office condemning anti-Asian hate, signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law in May 2021, and authorized an executive order to re-establish the WHIAANHPI. (Refer to the alphabet salad above).

A reporter asked the Internet sensation, "What does it mean to you to come to the White House?" BTS leader RM opened his mouth to respond, but the conversation was quickly shut down by Jean-Pierre, who asserted: "They're not going to take any questions." BTS was then swiftly ushered off stage after the token appearance.

The milquetoast follow-up act to BTS, the Biden administration's National Economic Council director Brian Deese, gushed over the global pop phenomenon's presence. "So I get to go home and tell my kids that BTS opened for me," Biden's bobble-headed economic adviser joked during a nauseating segue, before he and Jean-Pierre were both grilled over record-high gas prices and skyrocketing inflation across America.

More than 300,000 viewers tuned in to the briefing's livestream, far exceeding the typical number of watchers that click on the White House's streaming link, according to The Washington Post. (Mobile viewership continued to decay exponentially the longer that Deese's smirking face remained on-screen).

Afterwards, Biden welcomed BTS to a meeting in the Oval Office, which was closed off to reporters.

A minute-long teaser trailer previewing the private discussion was posted by the official POTUS account, which also thanked BTS for raising awareness around the rise of anti-Asian hate in the country.

"A lot of our Asian American friends have been subject to real discrimination," Biden says in the social media clip. "Hate only hides. When good people talk about it and say how bad it is, it goes down. So thank you."

RM replies with what feels like a stick-to-the-script endorsement of the Biden administration.

"We want to say thank you, sincerely, for your decision, such as signing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law..." RM tells Biden. "And we truly appreciate the White House and the government's trying to find solutions."

Biden concludes the video: "People care a lot about what you say, and what you're doing is good for all people. It's not just your great talent; it's the message you're communicating. It matters." More of Biden's interaction with BTS will be shared "soon," the president's Twitter account stated in the late Tuesday night's post.

BTS appearing at the White House wasn't well-received by members of the Asian American community.

The Post Millennial's editor-at-large Andy Ngo called the display "grossly out of touch," questioning the Biden administration: "Why not meet with the victims (or their families) of hate crimes in New York or San Francisco?"

The investigative journalist often spotlights cases of black-on-Asian violence that the media chooses to ignore or refuses to report on the race of the assailants. Ngo himself has been a repeat victim of Antifa's racist attacks on minorities for daring to expose inconvenient plot holes in the Left's party-of-tolerance narrative.

Biden has led the mudsling against white Americans, now the Left's scapegoat for race-related crime. Democrats have pounced at the opportunity to redirect the #StopAsianHate movement's momentum towards a renewed campaign against so-called "white supremacy," even though the string of assaults on Asian victims often caught on surveillance camera paint quite a different picture of who the true Asian haters are.

Speaking of which, the Bided administration sided with white liberal elites and against high-achieving Asian American students fighting for fair college admissions when the Department of Justice urged the Supreme Court in a December 2021 legal brief to reject the high-profile Harvard discrimination case.

The Biden administration's love for racial balancing and affirmative action was also evident in Biden's initial picks to fill his inner circle. Before bitter backlash, Asians were at first excluded from Biden's "diverse" Cabinet when he prioritized female and minority appointments to senior posts but overlooked potential Asian nominees.

Korean American content creator Kangmin Lee also echoed Ngo's thoughts on the matter and said "there is no way BTS actually understands any of this virtual signaling crap," noting that Koreans from Korea would have no idea what the Left's jumbled acronyms mean. "And they'll never say who’s actually the ones stabbing Asians to death and smashing their heads against concrete in our city streets," the YouTuber tweeted Tuesday.

BTS wasn't the first Gen Z influencer to grace the White House as political props used to advance the Biden administration's half-baked youth messaging. Teenage pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo had stopped at Biden's main residence last summer to tell America's young'uns that COVID-19 vaccines are "good 4 u." In March, a gaggle of TikTok stars took a break from dancing to be briefed by the White House on Russia's war in Ukraine.

Biden's PR team choosing BTS as the latest gambit in the cultural arena might not be the most "Dynamite" decision to bolster the president's "Build Back Butter" brand among young progressives. (Okay, I'll stop). Scoring brownie points with BTS fan girls likely won't salvage Biden's abysmal approval rating.

And the White House seems to know this is just a small splash in the vast demographic pool. At the 11th hour before Pride Month, when corporations capitalize on the current thing and pander to the crazed LGBTQ2IA+$#!&@*= fanatics, Biden pumped out a slew of proclamations, appeasing....well, everyone on Earth, declaring June this year National Immigrant Heritage Month...and National Caribbean-American Heritage Month...also Black Music Appreciation Month...don't forget National Ocean Month...and National Homeownership Month for good measure...and, finally Great Outdoors Month.