Yeah, she’s a talking head, not a boom mike operator.
It’s clear she did it on purpose.
First of all, I have never seen boom operators allowed to operate that close to any sitting President. Secondly, she obviously was untrained and unprepared to appropriately operate a boom mic and probably has little experience and certainly does not have the arm strength needed to control the device. Thirdly, reporters are not audio technicians or videographers and should not be operating equipment like booms. I am surprised the Union allowed a reporter to handle this equipment and displace an actual trained union audio technician. I have been on location shooting video at the Whitehouse and Executive Office Building and have never seen a reporter wielding a microphone boom. Must be special rules for NPR.