A question for the prez
Why hasn’t Biden held a regular press conference?
Nearly seven weeks and counting and President Biden has yet to stand before America and take repeated questions from the media.
It’s bad enough that the president and his staff don’t have faith in him and his sometimes wandering mind to make it through an hour long press conference. But it’s also appalling that the media lets him get away with it — instead suffering through endless inane briefings by press secretary Jennifer Psaki.
“I think his staff does not have faith that he can stand at the podium and have a press conference the way President Trump did many times,” former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News. “I don’t think this is President Biden saying, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ ”
You won’t get much information from those press briefings, that’s for sure.
Psaki’s favorite blow-off response to a question is “I’ll circle back” on that one. It was trending on Twitter.
She has an edgy smile like she wants to tell reporters to stuff it. But I can’t imagine her getting an invite to Dancing with the Stars, or getting mocked at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
And you won’t see Saturday Night Live imitating Psaki like they did McEnany and Sarah Huckabee and Sean Spicer. They were under attack from Day One by Democrats and the Trump-hating media.
Will Biden get his own Jim Acosta someday? Someone to hound him, maybe? Doubtful.
Say what you will about President Trump, he managed his own press operation.
By this time in his early presidency, Trump had five press conferences where he faced hostile questions. But he stood there and took it. He was never in the bunker.
Trump’s press conferences usually led to blaring headlines and yes, sometimes he acted like a jerk. But at least he was accessible and open to the American people.
Biden has shown no such willingness to be accessible, preferring to take one or maybe two shouted questions at his public events.
He’s giving a speech to the nation later this week but that will be completely scripted on a teleprompter — no chance that he’ll face any questions.
Psaki is promising a traditional press conference before the end of the month. We’ll see. If he does it, he’ll likely call on only his favored reporters and keep it short.
The reality is that the 78year-old Biden won’t be able to stay on script through an entire traditional press conference, and is bound to trip on his words or make a gaffe. But don’t worry — the media will cover it up like they usually do.