Bdue, finally, to the White House tradition, or perhaps just to the growth of tsk-tskcoming from an offended Beltway news media, Joe Biden finally scheduled his first formal press conference for Thursday, March 25 – the 64th of his fledgling presidency.
“It’s a problem – who are we kidding here? More than two months without a press conference? Come on! “A veteran White House correspondent told The Daily Beast, asking not to be identified for fear that criticism of Biden’s White House, despite all his talk of the First Amendment, could cause some kind of punishment.
“Obviously, there is no equivalence between that and how the press was treated under Donald Trump – I think we are all suffering from post-Trump stress disorder – but this is pushing the limits on access and transparency.”
The correspondent acknowledged, however, that “from a strategic point of view, it makes perfect sense, because why would you want to be questioned about your predecessor all the time? Or Hunter Biden? There will always be uncomfortable questions, no matter who is in charge. But there is a question of responsibility here that he has just completely shied away from. It is very cute in half. It seems that they are doing this because they think it just confuses them with the message. “
Trump, at this point in his presidency, had held five press conferences, although four of them were the so-called “two and two” with visiting foreign leaders, presenting only two questioners from each press body in each nation.
While the Washington PostMedia reporter Paul Farhi pointed out in a recent story, this surprising media shyness on the part of the former loquacious former senator and vice president – “the longest time a new president has spent without meeting the press in the past 100 years ”, Wrote Farhi— elicited all kinds of harsh admonitions from the elite of journalism.
“Americans have every right to expect him to regularly subject himself to substantial inquiries,” said one Publish editorial. “As with previous presidents,” said Zeke Miller of the Associated Press, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, in a statement, “the WHCA continues to call on President Biden to hold formal press conferences on a regular basis.”
“The most important thing for Biden’s success as president … is to communicate as often as possible what he is doing and why, and I think they are doing a good job at it.“
– Jay Carney, Obama’s White House press secretary
THE National NewspaperWhite House correspondent George Condon, former president of WHCA, argued that, although formal news conferences play an essential role in “better understanding the president’s thinking”, the Biden White House deserves a certain margin of maneuver because of the logistical challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is no one who presses more for press conferences than I do, but I really think you have to put that into context a little bit,” Condon told The Daily Beast. “You have the reality that the White House and the Correspondents’ Association are being bombarded with complaints every week about ‘why we can’t get into the instruction room’ [because of social-distancing requirements that limit the press seating to just 14]. If you are receiving these complaints, what will be the demand for an internal press conference? It is just a very difficult situation … If this were a normal non-pandemic situation, I would be among the loudest complaining voices. “
Meanwhile, a Biden White House official who chose to remain anonymous insisted that the president’s alleged disappearance is false news. Leaving aside the long-overdue press conference, this person sent an email to The Daily Beast that Biden “held a meeting at CNN City Hall, Univision, [an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos], and he answers questions from the press here at the White House several times a week. “
Of course, Biden usually answers just one or two questions at a time, usually with concise answers and zero follow-ups, an exchange that occasionally competes with the noise of helicopter propellers. Or he can answer a question during sprays in the pool, when a small contingent of journalists is taken to the Oval Office for a minute or two and “he can’t hear us half the time”, as one reporter complained to the press the other day. White House secretary Jen Psaki.
“Press conferences are essential to inform the American people and maintain a responsible administration to the public,” said Zeke Miller of WHCA.
But are they?
“I strongly endorse this reticence from Biden’s press conference,” Atlantic David Frum, editor of the magazine staff, speechwriter for George W. Bush at the White House, posted last week on Twitter, where he argued that any president, by definition, is a politically polarizing lightning rod, and “by maintaining a low profile, Biden is de-escalating and depolarizing politics – a smart move” demonstrating not only that “the presidency is a collective performance , not an individual show “, but also that” this highly emotional and often talkative man [can] gather the self-discipline necessary to succeed at work. “
Frum also argued that presidential press conferences in general, whether of gladiators or merely theatrical, contribute much less to public awareness than obstinate and unhappy journalism: least tempted to performing acrobatics. No one ever says to a reporter, ‘Congratulations, you really cheated the IRS commissioner!’ “
“I really don’t think Joe Biden has anything to fear.“
– A veteran White House correspondent
Press critic Soledad O’Brien, a television journalist and longtime documentary filmmaker, offered a typically prejudiced view: “It seems what the White House press wants – as opposed to significant information provided by the president at his press conference – they want let the president show that the White House press corps is very, very important … For me, that speaks more to the White House press corps who want to be seen as very, very important and reliable than ‘the people American has these issues’ ”.
O’Brien added: “This idea that we are counting the ‘days since’ – when you had a president [Trump] who was literally a pathological liar – it looks like they [the news media] they are crying out for controversy, because they can only talk about these things if it is framed as a controversy. “
However, Bill Clinton’s oldest White House press secretary, Mike McCurry – who deftly (though uncomfortably) navigated the Monica Lewinsky scandal – predicted that the Biden White House will eventually conclude that formal press conferences are at least as beneficial to the president as they are to the media.
“The process of preparing for a press conference is elaborate,” McCurry told The Daily Beast. “In my day, it involved President Clinton and Vice President Gore sitting at the end of the table, and I was the inquisitor. I would ask the cruelest version of any question that I thought the press could ask. And that often infuriated President Clinton. Al Gore’s mission was to calm him down. He said, ‘Mr. President, the American people love it when the veins pop out of your neck and you get all red in the face like that. That is good! It shows energy! ‘And everyone would laugh. And he would calm down. “
McCurry continued: “The important point, however, is that we would follow the guidelines we received on this or that specific response and, invariably, Clinton would say ‘this is just bullshit, it says nothing’ and I said, ‘I know, but as soon as we are. ‘ And he would interrupt the preparation of the press conference and call the cabinet secretary for whatever the matter was, and it was an event of imposition of actions. That would change the policy, because we had to have a better policy for speaking than what was proposed as an answer. So the usefulness of the press conference is that it really reinforces better government. “
As for the frequency, or not, of formal exchanges between the president and the press, “it is a concern in the media, but not Vox Populi”Said McCurry.
This view was shared by former Obama press secretary at the White House, Jay Carney – who, prior to that work, was head of the Washington office for Time magazine and then communications director for Vice President Biden.
“This is a debate that is taking place in just one place – in news circles in DC and especially in the White House press,” said Carney, now senior vice president for global corporate affairs at Amazon. “From the press point of view, I understand that they want more,” Carney told The Daily Beast, “but the most important thing for Biden’s success as president – on behalf of the people, not for any other reason – is to communicate as as often as possible what he’s doing and why, and I think they’re doing a good job at it. “
Carney added: “What seems important in Washington or in the west wing or in the boardroom is not exactly the same as what is important for most Americans … Most people who are struggling, who are exhausted from COVID , they just want to see results. They don’t care if he’s giving a press conference or ten press conferences … If you start to think that your Washington critics are the same as your national critics, you’re going to lose. “
Not surprisingly, the announcement of Biden’s impending press conference did nothing to calm the dark speculation of his party detractors in the opposition media.
“What kind of press conference will it be? Will he have a teleprompter? Will he know the questions in advance? Is he going to call only friendly reporters? ”Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney reflected the other day. “I believe there will be a teleprompter that you can just call when you need a definite answer.”
Varney’s guest, Fox News contributor Joe Concha, said: “Even with low expectations for Joe Biden, as it always is with this president, as he speaks outside of a teleprompter, it will not go well if the reporters ask firmly, difficult questions with follow-up ”, he predicted.
The positive thinking of serial liars like the deposed White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, included claims that 78-year-old Biden is being protected by his aides because he is simply not. prepared for a vigorous exchange on live television with aggressive job reporters.
Several Trump acolytes and election deniers on Newsmax and Fox News, notably Sean Hannity, actually diagnosed the 46th president with dementia – a false claim undermined by, among other evidences, Biden’s informed and confident performance during his journalistic interview with Stephanopoulos.
“I really don’t think Joe Biden has anything to fear,” said the veteran White House correspondent who asked not to be named. “This is all so strange to me that it has become a problem. Biden gave press conferences during the campaign. He’s a professional. I have no doubt that he would be able to do very well. “
On the other hand, “I think there is an opportunity for reporters to exaggerate, skip their skis and embarrass themselves and their vehicles if they are very concerned about President Biden,” said the veteran correspondent. “If Peter Doocy goes there and acts like Joe Biden is Donald Trump, that’s not going to be good for Fox News or Peter Doocy – not that they care. “