Korean band BTS will appear at a daily press conference with Press Secretary Carine Jean Pierre at the White House Brady Press Conference in Washington, DC on May 31, 2022, discussing Asian inclusion and representation, and anti-Asia. Hate crime and discrimination.
Sole Robe | AFP | Getty Images
At the White House press conference on Tuesday, viewers surged significantly as K-POP Megastar BTS stopped by to speak prior to the meeting with President Joe Biden.
The feeling of the seven members, Crushed the record With popular songs and music videos, we attracted more than 310,000 simultaneous viewers and watched a live stream of a press conference on the White House’s YouTube channel. Recently, regular briefings focused on topics such as inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are rarely produced near the size of the audience seen on Tuesday.
For example, last Thursday’s official video of the White House’s BTS-less briefing had less than 16,000 total YouTube views as of Tuesday afternoon.
BTS came to the White House and talked to Biden about the inclusion and representation of Asia. Anti-Asian hate crime in recent years. Biden signed the Covid-19 Hate Climb Act last year to address that trend.
The Oval Office confab between the US President and the South Korean boy band was set up to follow the meeting between Biden and Jerome Powell of the Federal Reserve Board. The two planned to discuss the state of economy and inflation, which the White House calls Biden’s “top economic priority.”
At the start of the briefing on Tuesday afternoon, a pop star in a nearly identical black suit and black tie stood behind spokesman Carine Jean Pierre on the podium at the James Brady Briefing Room.
When the briefing began, the number of people watching the White House video quickly surged, even though the stream was initially plagued by sound problems.
“Hello, we are BTS. It is an honor to be invited to the White House today to discuss important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion and diversity,” said the group leader. RM told the crowd. Of an English reporter.
He also thanked Biden for “an important opportunity to talk about important causes.” [and] Remember what you can do as an artist. “
The other 6 members each spoke Korean. The band left the room without asking a question.
Many of the audience checked out as early as possible. Within minutes of the group’s departure, more than 200,000 viewers left the live stream.
“OK,” Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, sighed and laughed after the band left.
“So I go home and tell my kids that BTS has opened for me,” he said.
