Media give Biden a pass on press conferences after griping about Trump
March 5, 2021
There is radio silence on criticism as President Joe Biden has made it 41 days into his presidency without a solo press conference.
His predecessor, former President Donald Trump, made his first official solo press debut 27 days into taking office, yet experienced a much different media than Biden now faces.
Major outlets jumped at the chance to criticize Trump’s insufficient press conferences. As recently as 2017, the Washington Post hit Trump for not holding a sufficient amount of press conferences and keeping them out of one. Yet the Post has been entirely silent about Biden’s refusal to address the media.
NBC, CNBC, and USA Today also lambasted Trump for a purported lack of press conferences from Trump but have not held Biden to the same standard.
George H.W. Bush held 27 press conferences in his first year, while Jimmy Carter held 22. The American people deserve to see their president address the media.
HuffPost reported that the White House Press Corps was giving Trump a “pass” on the lack of conferences.
“We are days away from marking his first year in office and in all of that time, Trump has only held one formal solo press conference — a whopping 328 days ago, on February 16,” HuffPost wrote. “And yet there is nary a peep from the press corps about this remarkable lack.”
Media outlets and reporters have promised to hold Biden just as “accountable” as they did Trump – Teen Vogue, NBC, CNN, and Elle, to name a few.
CNN reported that because Psaki had been a CNN commentator, “it means the media hasn’t had to aggressively fact-check her, and the inner workings of the government are not dramatic on a day-to-day basis.”
During a time where millions of Americans are suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, Joe Biden has not made a single solo press conference.