Obama downplays G20 arrival spats while agency sends salty tweet

While most of America was watching college football or grilling this holiday weekend, an international incident with China involving President Obama nearly occurred, and an intelligence agency tried to take the scrap with the giant nation to Twitter.

It all began on Saturday, when Obama arrived in China for the G20 summit. First, there was a tiff over stairs. More specifically, there were no stairs for Obama to use to disembark from Air Force One, according to the Washington Post. The logistical issue sent aides scrambling and forced Obama to exit the plane from a rear door.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Meanwhile, on the ground, Chinese officials got into a confrontation with American journalists and photographers who were trying to take up positions to capture Obama's arrival. Except the Chinese officials wanted to keep the journalists far back from the plane.

That led to a few testy moments, caught on camera by Reuters' White House reporter Roberta Rampton. When a reporter seems to express her right to be in the location, the official responds, "This is our country, this is our airport."

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Later, at the West Lake State House, there was another confrontation between Chinese security officials, one trying to assist American officials and one opposed, ahead of Obama's arrival.

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There was even a reported incident involving U.S. National Security Advisor and UN ambassador Susan Rice, who later told reporters that the Chinese officials, "did things that weren't anticipated."

Other world leaders received the (literal) red carpet treatment upon arrival, leading many to think that this was a deliberate snub by the Chinese.

Mexico's former ambassador to China, Jorge Guajardo, told The Guardian, “These things do not happen by mistake. Not with the Chinese... It's not a mistake. It's not."

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For his part, Obama seemed to downplay the incidents, saying, "The seams are showing a little more than usual," in reference to current relations with China.

He added, "It is true that not for the first time, when we come here, there ends up being issues around security and press access. And part of the reason is because we insist on a certain approach to our press pool, for example, that other countries may not insist on."

And, yet, it still didn't sit well with some.

The Defense Intelligence Agency, an agency at the Pentagon specializing in military intelligence, tweeted out the below salty statement, calling out China, before quickly deleting it.

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While it was deleted, it didn't go unnoticed.

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All the attention later prompted the DIA to tweet an apology about the snark.

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