US President Joe Biden's aides prevented him from answering reporters' questions in an encounter that came on his 48th day in office without holding a solo press conference.
The incident occurred in Washington on Tuesday, when POTUS was wrapping up his visit to W.S. Jenks & Son, a hardware store that benefited from Biden's Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP).
The president toured the store with its owners for about 10 minutes before the travelling press corps started to shout questions in Biden's direction, including those related to a migration crisis at the US-Mexican border.
The aides were quick to yell back, "Come on, press, you gotta go", as they moved the journalists away. Biden did not answer a single question, standing about 20 feet (approximately 6 metres) away from the reporters.
Netizens immediately began posting sarcastic comments about Biden looking "lost" and "totally confused" during Tuesday's visit.
"Listen to the absolute panic from his handlers", one Twitter user wrote on their account as another netizen claimed that Biden "has no clue where he is or who he is anymore".
Commenting on the possibility of Biden holding a news conference in the foreseeable future, White House press secretary Jen Psaki Psaki earlier this month said "not yet".
"But we will definitely have one. We will schedule it, and you'll be the first to know because you're pivotal participants in that", she added
POTUS' immediate predecessors, former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, took 20 and 27 days respectively to face reporters after their inaugurations.