President Barack Obama will appear on ABC’s “The View” in New York but has no scheduled meetings with world leaders who are in the city for the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday” asked Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs why the president is not meeting privately with any world leaders in New York.
“The president has blocked out time to appear on ‘The View’ on Tuesday. So he has time for Whoopi Goldberg, but he doesn’t have time for world leaders?” asked Wallace.
“No, Chris. Look, the president is going to be actively involved at the U.N. General Assembly,” said Gibbs on Sunday.
“He’s not meeting in private with leaders. He’s giving a speech.”
According to the official White House schedule, Obama will sit down with first lady Michelle Obama on Monday in New York for a pre-taped interview, which will air Tuesday on “The View.” His address at the U.N. takes place on Tuesday.
“There are telephones in the White House. Last week, he talked to the president of Egypt. He talked to the leader in Libya. We don’t need a meeting in Washington just to confer with leaders,” Gibbs told Wallace.
Bradley Blakeman, former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush for scheduling, said that Bush met privately with world leaders during U.N. General Assembly meetings in the past and would not have “had time” for a show like “The View.”
“We wouldn’t have had time for ‘The View’ because it would have been jam-packed with bilaterals at the Waldorf where world leaders were coming one after the other to sit down with the president and have a discussion – something you really can’t accomplish on the other end of a telephone,” said Blakeman on Monday.