President Biden received criticism for not holding a formal press conference 50 days into his presidency.
ABC News criticized Biden for the “striking” contrast in transparency with his predecessor, former President Trump after Biden hasn’t held a formal press conference after 50 days into his presidency.
ABC NEWS: "Halfway into his first 100 days, President Joe Biden has yet to hold a formal, solo news conference, raising questions about accountability with the White House under increasing pressure to explain why."https://t.co/c5goJqCpEB
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 11, 2021
ABC News reported, “Halfway into his first 100 days, President Joe Biden has yet to hold a formal, solo news conference, raising questions about accountability with the White House under increasing pressure to explain why.”
The news outlet added that the contrast with former President Trump has been “especially striking,” especially after Biden’s repeated promises to Americans that he would always be “straight” and “transparent.”
However, this is not the case with Biden’s interactions with the press, as his interactions have largely been brief responses to shouted questions after finishing formal remarks.
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki tried to defend Biden by stating that the President has done around 40 Q&As since he took office. However, ABC dismissed this claim stating that Psaki’s answeres “often devoid of any meaningful back-and-forth” and lasting “just seconds.”
“[Psaki] said Monday that ‘the president has done about 40 Q&As since he took office.’
But those exchanges are often devoid of any meaningful back-and-forth, and typically last just seconds.” https://t.co/S7hCmj0J4q
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) March 11, 2021
Said report also focused their attention on aides who yell at reporters to leave whenever Biden finishes his comments, drawing criticism that Biden appears to need protection from probing questions.
Fox News contributor Joe Concha also criticized Biden stating that Biden is acting like an “absentee president.” Concha said that while Biden was signing sweeping executive orders and at the verge of executing a massive coronavirus stimulus package, he is not making himself accountable to the media.
Last week, Concha told “America Reports” that his team has “zero confidence that Biden can handle questions outside of handpicked reporters.”
Biden’s relationship with the press is in stark contrast with former President Trump, who is known for holding press briefings for extended periods, such as when he is walking to Marine One on the White House lawn.
At an event earlier this week, reporters tried to do the same towards Biden and attempted to ask him questions as he was on his way to Marine One. However, White House staffers quickly intervened as the President exited.
In response to the criticism, White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated that Biden would hold a formal presser by the end of March. If this happens, Biden will be the first President in 100 years not to give a press conference to this point of his administration.
Compared to the former presidents, Trump only took 28 days in office to hold a press conference. President Obama waited for 21 days, and President George W. Bush took 34 days.
Biden sets a 100-year record by STILL refusing to hold a press conference!
During the height of the pandemic, President Trump was holding up to 7 per week + gaggles.
The media may give Biden a pass — but history won’t!
My report @OANN:https://t.co/ouebpyABjW
— Natalie Harp (@NatalieJHarp) March 6, 2021
Aides to the President are known for shooing away traveling press corps as they shouted questions at an unresponsive commander in chief. The latest incident happened on Tuesday at the end of a visit by Biden to W.S. Jenks & Son, a hardware store at Washington that benefited from his temporary extension of the Paycheck Protection Program for smaller businesses.
After reporters quietly watched Biden interact with store owners and employees for around 10 minutes, they began shouting questions at the President but to no avail.
Then immediately afterward, the president’s handlers started yelling back assertively, “Come on, press, you gotta go,” as the whole gaggle of reporters was quickly evacuated from the scene.
Biden, standing merely 15 to 20 feet away from the press, did not even flinch nor try to answer a single question from the series of shouted questions. Included in the questions ignored by Biden was the burgeoning immigration crisis at the southern border.
