The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
A lot of things can happen aboard Air Force One as the President and his staff travel across Asia... even a surprise birthday party. Also, Ben Rhodes provides a video preview of the President's visit to China.
As you've heard in some of our travel updates, there are a lot of things you can do on Air Force One. You can use computers, make phone calls, use the Internet. One thing you can't do is avoid surprise birthday celebrations.
Yesterday, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes had a birthday party thrust upon them unwittingly at about 30,000 feet.
Lured into the conference room with the promise of a security briefing, they were instead treated to cake and good cheer by the President and some of his staff. No one was more surprised than myself, who arrived on the scene with my camera too late to film the event, but just in time for some cake. No one was less surprised than Ben Rhodes, who was unconvinced by POTUS personal aide Reggie Love's clumsy promise of "some sort of briefing."
We are now en route to Shanghai as Ben, older and wiser, will report:
Arun Chaudhary is the official White House videographer
