Since 2021, President Joe Biden’s White House has faced accusations of sheltering Biden from the press.
On Monday, White House P)ress Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took questions about the lack of a press conference ahead of Biden’s visit to Ireland.
Jean-Pierre dismissed the questions, and even the liberal media reporters present didn’t want to hear it.
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“It is also unprecedented that a President takes as many shouted questions as this President has. And he has,” Jean-Pierre claimed.
“Right now, we just don’t have anything on the books for a press conference at this moment. The President always loves to take your questions — shouted questions.”
After that remark, the press pool became full of overlapping voices groaning and shouting “no!”
Jean-Pierre responded with her favorite sound bite.
“I don’t have anything to share with all of you at this time,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’ll certainly get the data and share that with all of you… I’ll just leave it there.”
Jen Psaki, the preceding press secretary, has also excused Biden’s lack of press conferences. Psaki, like Jean-Pierre, praised the president’s answers to shouted questions, despite the president’s tendency to give half-answers.
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Take a look —
Karine Jean-Pierre says it's "unprecedented that a president takes as many shouted questions as this president has."
Reporters groan in unison at the absurdity of her statement. pic.twitter.com/A4g5sIU9ch
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 10, 2023
Chris Wallace is correct to push Psaki on why Biden isn’t taking more questions from the press. It’s been far less than his predecessors. pic.twitter.com/BJqrn1W4aK
— Geoff Pilkington (@geoffpilkington) April 21, 2022
Jean-Pierre bemoaned the “unprecedented” frequency of shouted questions after a remark from one reporter, apparently Jon Decker.
Decker — Gray Television’s White House correspondent — took issue with “the lack of a press conference during the President’s upcoming trip and the lack of press conference that we see in general from this White House.”
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According to the White House transcript, Decker and Jean-Pierre said —
Q: … I represent a news organization that owns 113 television stations. And a question that I’m often asked — and I don’t know the answer to, so I’ll ask you that question: Is the administration trying to protect the President from our questions? Please answer that question if you could.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
Q: Then why the lack of any interaction in a formal setting to have a press conference?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, the President takes shouted questions. I —
Q: In a formal — in a formal setting.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I understand. Jon, I understand.
Q: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I understand. I have dealt with this question about three times already. I understand it is — it is — it is the job of you all to ask this question to me. Totally get that. And that’s not a problem at all.
But certainly, the President many times has — has stan- — has stood in front of all of you, has taken questions on his own, because he wanted to see what was on — on your minds, he wanted to see what the questions you all were going to ask him, and he wanted to answer them directly.
That has happened multiple times — many times during this administration. And that will certainly continue to be. When it comes to a formal press conference, I don’t have anything to share with you at this time.
Q: You recognize — just one last thing.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, sure.
Q: Just to button it up. You recognize that as it relates to prior administrations, the President’s predecessor, President Obama, President George W. Bush — I’ve been here long enough to have covered President Bill Clinton — this is not the norm.
The norm is we do get an opportunity, ask the questions to the President about domestic and foreign policy issues in a formal setting at some point, and you choose that point. But we haven’t had that opportunity in quite some time.
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Take a look —
Reporter on Biden not taking questions: "This is not the norm. The norm is we do get an opportunity to ask questions."
KJP: "It is also unprecedented that a president takes as many shouted questions as this president has."
Many reporters in the room tell her that's not true pic.twitter.com/VuuTs4aJYb
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) April 10, 2023
The Horn editorial team