On Monday, President Obama held an off-the-books meeting with top administration officials to walk through the federal government’s response to Hurricane Sandy, which devastated parts of the East Coast in 2012.
The meeting was not on Mr. Obama’s official schedule and was kept under wraps until Thursday afternoon when the White House released its weekly “West Wing Week” video on YouTube.
In the video, White House press secretary Josh Earnest describes the secret meeting, which also was not discussed during daily press briefings this week.
“The president walked next door to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to reflect on the government’s response to Hurricane Sandy and to prepare for future disasters,” Mr. Earnest says in the video.
Mr. Obama is then shown on screen meeting with White House officials, including Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.
“I know we still have a lot of work to do, but we’ve been able to generate recommendations that don’t just address rebuilding but also building in resiliency and rebuilding smarter and better,” Mr. Obama said at the meeting.
The administration has been under constant fire from the press corps for limited access to the president and for allowing White House photographers and videographers to take pictures and video of Mr. Obama during events closed to reporters, or, in this case, events reporters were unaware of.
The video can be seen here.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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