Biden crashes press briefing

President Joe Biden on Friday made his first appearance in the White House press briefing room since taking office, part of a victory lap following a series of economic wins that include a strong jobs report and an end to the dockworkers’ strike.

“The past two days, we’ve gotten some very good news about the American economy,” Biden said, noting that the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance reached a deal to reopen ports Thursday evening, averting what he said could have “become a major crisis for the country.”

“But today we got even more incredible news,” Biden continued, touting the Labor Department’s September jobs report , which far exceeded analysts’ expectations.

Biden has faced criticism for holding far fewer press conferences than his recent predecessors and has at times kept the traditional news media at an arm’s length. Despite repeated invitations from members of the press corps to come to the briefing room, it wasn’t until the president’s final few months in office that he finally took them up on that offer.

“Hey folks, my name is Joe Biden,” the president joked as he walked in. “Welcome to the swimming pool.”

Reporters let out an audible gasp as the president strode into the briefing room unannounced, underscoring just how infrequent these unscripted moments are for Biden.

After touting his administration’s economic wins, Biden, who stayed at the briefing podium for roughly 15 minutes, took a handful of questions from reporters. Asked about Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) calling the strong jobs report, the second-to-last one before the election, “ fake numbers ,” Biden said that “anything the MAGA Republicans don’t like, they call fake.”

“The job numbers are what the job numbers are. They are real,” he said.

Biden also fielded questions about the conflict in the Middle East, suggesting that Israelis should consider other retaliatory alternatives aside from striking Iranian oil facilities, which could impact the global oil market. He said his team was “constantly” in contact with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s team, and asserted the Israelis “are not going to make a decision immediately” on their next steps. He said sanctions on Iran were currently under consideration, but would not discuss them further.

And he said that while he was confident that the upcoming U.S. election would be “free and fair,” he did not know whether it would be “peaceful.”

“The things that Trump has said, and the things he said last time when he did not like the outcome of the election were very dangerous. I noticed that the vice presidential Republican candidate did not say he would accept the outcome of the election. He hasn’t even accepted the outcome from the last election,” Biden said. “I am concerned about what they are going to do.”

Altogether, Biden spent about 15 minutes in the briefing room. As he exited, a reporter asked whether he wanted to reconsider his July decision to drop out of the presidential race.

Biden quickly turned around.

“I’m back in,” the president quipped before finally departing.