Psaki also said he would hold daily news briefings – a change from the previous government, which used to go weeks without addressing reporters. Former press secretary Stephanie Grisham did not have a single education during her tenure. Trump has often chosen to make important policy and personnel announcements from his personal Twitter account. Psaki’s appearance on Wednesday was the White House’s first press conference since December 15.
For the White House press corps and the news media in general, besieged by Trump for four years and denigrated as “fake news”, Psaki’s first responses at the podium set a new standard by which the White House must now live. But while Psaki’s remarks were addressed to reporters in the conference room, his audience was likewise the American people, in an effort to reinforce that the Biden government was turning a page from the recent past of obfuscation and blatant lies.
Psaki’s debut appearance was a diametric contrast to the first Trump presidential press conference, where then-press secretary Sean Spicer insisted that Trump’s inaugural crowd was the largest in US history – a statement that quickly proved false with aerial photos of the event.
But not everything went back to pre-Trump times on Wednesday. The instruction room was far below the ability to abide by Covid’s social detachment rules, and Psaki came out to the pulpit with an N-95 mask – a preventive measure that former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany often refused. (Psaki removed the mask when he started to speak.)
Psaki too outlined a series of policy objectives and passed executive orders that Biden had signed as part of his first day in office. The orders reversed some of the signature actions of the Trump administration, including increasing fortifications on the southern border and banning travel from several Muslim-majority countries. They also enacted a masking mandate in federal spaces to combat the coronavirus pandemic and returned the United States to the Paris Climate Agreement.
Answering questions about coronavirus relief, Psaki said Biden “was no stranger to the bill-making process” and reiterated the president’s campaign promise to work across the corridor to pass comprehensive relief legislation.
“We are at the beginning of the process,” said Psaki. “It rarely looks exactly like the proposed starter package.”
She also said that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease specialist and one of the most public faces of Trump’s White House coronavirus efforts, would participate in a virtual meeting with the World Health Organization. reversal of Trump’s plans to withdraw the US from the global health agency amid the pandemic.
Wednesday’s meeting was not Psaki’s first time at the White House communications store. Prior to his current role, Psaki served in various positions for President Barack Obama’s press operation and served as a spokesman for the State Department at the end of Obama’s presidency.
Christopher Cadelago contributed to this report.