U.S. CAPITAL — Friday afternoon’s White House celebration for the LSU women’s basketball team went awry when freshman forward Sa’Myah Smith fainted during President Biden’s speech.
For almost six minutes, the 80-year-old president stood awkwardly at his East Room lectern while Smith was treated and wheeled out of the room.
After the event had restarted, Biden observed, “This is not the first time it has happened.” In the past, guests at the White House have fainted and needed to be checked out in the on-site doctor’s office.
Smith, a native of DeSoto, Texas, started all 36 games she was eligible for and averaged 4.6 points per contest as the Tigers claimed their first women’s basketball title last month.
After first lady Jill Biden mistakenly snubbed the team by suggesting that the runner-up University of Iowa should also be invited, Vice President Biden graciously hosted the team.
Angel Reese, the star player for the Tigers, got an embrace from Jill Biden at the celebration despite suggesting last month that the team could skip a visit to the White House after President Biden called her “Angela” before correcting himself.
“Because of the ‘you said what you said’ argument, I cannot accept [Jill Biden’s] apologies. “Because, you know, you just can’t take some of the things you say back,” Reese stated on a podcast at the time. That attention can be focused on Iowa. The Obamas will be our hosts. Michelle and I have a date. “Barack, we shall meet.”
Reese also said that the LSU players had forbidden Jill Biden from coming to the locker room to see them before the championship game.
Reese stated, “Apparently she was supposed to come to our locker room before the game, but we said ‘no.'” She was scheduled to visit our locker room before heading to Iowa’s However, we previously expressed disinterest. The locker room was off-limits to her.
On Friday, Trump tried to patch things up by praising Reese for raising women’s game ticket prices above those of LSU men’s games.
Biden told the players he had “four granddaughters,” ignoring his son Hunter’s out-of-wedlock 4-year-old daughter Navy Roberts.
The Treasury Department has warned that a default on U.S. government debt may happen as soon as next week, and Biden sponsored this event during the heated negotiations over the debt ceiling with House Republicans.
Despite widespread criticism from House Democrats, Biden plans to leave Washington for his Memorial Day weekend travels to Camp David and Delaware on Friday evening.
Budget director Shalanda Young, a key White House negotiator, was present at the LSU event, as was Representative Garret Graves (R-La.), another key Republican negotiator.
“Shalanda Young is back there, direct of management and budget, putting together a deal, hopefully,” Biden remarked. Important budget conversations are currently underway, and [Young] is assisting me in this capacity. However, she broke off the negotiations to say, “I need to be here.”