Instead, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, relied on similar wording that he used during the trip itself. Graff said the presence of the White House press corps is as much about protecting “the presidency and democracy” as it is about covering the story. A press pool at the White House had been expecting a quiet Sunday for Biden in Washington. Joe Lockhart, a White House press secretary for Clinton, noted that reporters knew the president was on one of the planes, “but not which one.” However, the White House did not suggest that the president was somewhere he was not — unlike when Trump was whisked out of Turkey.