Fake views: Biden is ridiculed for building 'game show set' with fake windows and photos of the Rose Garden over the road from in the White House
President Joe Biden is getting grief for a special ersatz White House aides have had constructed for presidential zoom sessions and other public events.
The Hollywood-style set is a stand-in for the White House, built on a stage inside the humbly named South Court Auditorium inside the Old Executive Office Building. It even has exterior views that to an untrained viewer during a tight shot might give the impression it is the White House itself.
Biden has used it on multiple occasions, including at a 'Build Back Better' event this week where a fake window showed flowers in bloom in the Rose Garden, which in fact is located nearby and south of the White House itself.
The set is equipped with new lighting and large-screen computer screens. Biden used them to conduct a zoom meeting with world leaders during the meeting of the UN General Assembly – an event he had attended in person in New York before returning to Washington.
President Joe Biden is coming under criticism for using a newly-constructed set that includes fake windows and digital views of the Rose Garden
He also used the room when he got his COVID-19 booster shot.
The arrangement, which usually includes flags, small desks, and windows that show digital images of the White House, has drawn mocking online from many of Biden's critics – who wonder why he doesn't just use the real White House.
'Why did the White House build a literal game show set complete with fake windows for Joe Biden??? So weird,' tweeted Abigain Marone, press secretary for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). She added in another tweet: 'WE ARE LIVING IN AN EPISODE OF VEEP,' in reference to the TV show.
Former Trump advisor Stephen Miller had his own view for the reasons behind the set – making Biden look and sound good during made-for-TV events.
'The reason Biden uses this bizarre virtual set for televised meetings — and not an actual room like East Room, Cabinet, Oval, Roosevelt, Sit Room, etc. — is because it allows him to read a script directly from a face-on monitor (& w/out teleprompter glass that can be seen on camera),' he tweeted.
Lights, camera, action! Biden has used the room, in an auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, for a series of events, including one with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (R) and CEO of Raytheon Technologies Gregory Hayes (L)
U.S. President Joe Biden holds up his sleeve to receive his coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccination in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building's South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 27, 2021. The vaccine is real, but the windows and the view are not
The window scenes have varied at different events
The set-up can be configured with huge screens, and includes professional lighting
Former Trump aide Stephen Miller says Biden uses the 'fake set' so he can read a teleprompter straight on
The fake views has led some more conspiratorially-inclined people to conclude other things are amiss, with one poster on Instagram even suggesting Biden got a 'fake booster shot.' A fact-checker knocked down the idea as attention on the set grew.
The set-up isn't brand-new. DailyMail.com tweeted about it in late September, and noted the windows had a sunny do on a day that was mostly cloudy.
The auditorium has advantages beyond the set itself. When the president appears there, reporters are seated in auditorium style chairs back from the elevated stage, making it hard to make eye contact or get in a question.
Biden has other rooms at his disposal – but recent events in the Oval Office with dignitaries have featured aides trying to get reporters trying to shout out questions to exit.
