Joe Biden's staff accused of physically blocking media from accessing and sometimes even photographing the candidate

Staffers working the campaign of Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden have been accused of being a little too hands-on with the media, as multiple accounts emerge of the former vice president's aides physically running interference between him and journalists covering the 2020 race.

What are the details?

According to freelance videographer Marcus DiPaola, he and other members of the press corps were mistreated by Biden staffers during a campaign stop in Iowa last week.

DiPaulo made the accusations on Twitter, saying one reporter was allegedly asked to leave by a campaign staffer who subsequently took their picture, a second journalist claimed a Biden staffer "physically invaded their space" in order to block them from the candidate, and a third reporter was also physically blocked by an aide who allegedly put her arms up in front of his camera.

DiPaola went on to say that Biden staffers "tried to remove" the media from "what appears to be a public lot," while the campaign moved the candidate's motorcade three times in an attempt to dodge questioning.

None of the unnamed reporters mentioned by DiPaola have gone on the record, and in fact, they all refused to comment when approached by Fox News. When DiPaola was asked by a Twitter follower to expose their identities and answer why they hadn't given their own accounts, he explained that "some of them cover Biden regularly and don't want to jeopardize their relationship with the campaign," while others "have to get permission from their employers to speak on-the-record."

Anything else?

Fox News noted that these aren't the first instances Biden's staffers have been accused of interfering with the work of the media. When Biden was vice president, his office apologized to a reporter for demanding he delete photos taken at an event in 2013. Two years prior, a Biden spokeswoman issued an apology to a reporter who was directed by staffers to stand in a storage room while waiting for the then-vice president to arrive for a speech.