President Joe Biden held fewer press conferences and interviews during his first year in office than any of his immediate five predecessors, according to a report.
Biden has done 22 interviews with the media and has held nine formal news conferences – six on his own and three with visiting foreign leaders – this past year.
By comparison, former presidents Donald Trump held 21 press conferences, Barack Obama held 27, George W. Bush held 19, Bill Clinton held 38, and George H. W. Bush held 31.
Former President Ronald Reagan held fewer press conferences than Biden during his first year in office, but only because he was shot and wounded during an assassination attempt in March 1981. And even after that, Reagan still did more interviews than Biden, talking to media outlets on 59 different occasions.
The White House has deflected criticisms about Biden’s lack of availability, with press secretary Jen Psaki claiming reporters can request interviews with him as often as they like.
But even the press has slammed Biden, arguing that at most they’ve been given “fleeting exchanges” with the president.
“We have had scant opportunities in this first year to learn the president’s views on a broad range of public concerns,” Steven Portnoy, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association and a reporter for CBS New Radio, told the Associated Press.
Psaki has previously admitted that she and other White House staffers intentionally keep Biden away from the press.
“A lot of times, we say, ‘Don’t take questions,’” she said last year.
Psaki recalled how nervous she was at one point when Biden took questions from the press pool multiple times.
“The first time I traveled with him, he took questions from the pool three times that day, and I thought, ‘Am I going to be fired when I get back?’” Psaki said.
“So he does do that, and he likes doing that,” she said. “I mean, the thing is, he likes the press corps and likes that back-and-forth and that engagement.”
