By The Big Magazine Staff
A White House press briefing drew a massive spike in viewers when K-pop megastars BTS stopped by the White House to talk to President Biden about Asian inclusion and representation, and to discuss a sharp rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in recent years.
More than 310,000 simultaneous viewers tuned into a livestream of the press briefing on the White House’s YouTube channel.
The seven member boy band wore black suits and black ties, stood behind press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the lectern of the James Brady Briefing Room at the start of the briefing Tuesday afternoon.
The number of people watching the White House’s video immediately shot up when the briefing kicked off, even as the stream was initially plagued by sound issues.
“Hi, we’re BTS, and it is a great honor to be invited to the White House today to be able to discuss the important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion and diversity,” the group’s leader RM told the crowd of reporters in English.
He also thanked Biden for the “important opportunity to speak about the important causes [and] remind ourselves of what we can do as artists.”
The other six members each spoke in Korean. The band took no questions and left the room.
Much of the audience checked out once BTS left the press conference. Within a few minutes of the group’s departure, more than 200,000 viewers had left the livestream.
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