"It (Gibbs' confrontation with security officials) was for a good cause," Obama told reporters Onbroad Air Force One, during his way back to Washington from a 10-day four-nation Asia tour that took him to India, Indonesia, S Korea and Japan.
Gibbs, on November 8, put his foot between the doors so that security officials could not close the doors without letting the White House travel pool to enter the room, where the Indian delegation led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the US delegation led by Obama were holding meeting.
"I will say that his foot is still bruised," Obama said laughingly.Photographers and cameramen from both India and US were allowed to enter the room and take pictures for less than a minute.
In photographs splashed across the US media, Gibbs was seen arguing with an Indian security official, in which, according to reports, the Press Secretary wanted to have all the eight White House Pool Reporters to enter the conference room, instead of five being insisted upon by the Indian officials.
"In no uncertain terms he informed the Indian official that the eight US media reps were going into that meeting or Gibbs was going to pull President Obama out of the session," The Los Angeles Times reported in its news dispatch from India.
"At one point, Gibbs even inserted his foot to stop a closing door and repeated his pullout threat with increased volume," it said.
US and Indian officials had agreed to allow a pool of eight American reporters into the beginning of the meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
But, Indian officials then refused to allow access to more than five."Gibbs loudly protested and at one point threatened to pull Obama out of the meeting, if the security officials did not relent," The New York Times reported.
The Washington Post said: "At one point, Gibbs literally had his foot lodged in the closing front door, asking if the Indian security officials pushing hard to shut it were going to break his foot."
"More angry words ensued, and after Gibbs convinced them, through high volume and repetition, that he was serious about pulling POTUS, we all made it inside,"