On Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that President Joe Biden will hold a solo press conference next Wednesday, January 19, just before he will have been in office for a year. The announcement comes after Biden had a particularly bad week, including but not limited to how his efforts to get voting legislation passed appear to have backfired after he made a fiery and divisive speech in Atlanta on Tuesday that was filled with inaccuracies.
.@PressSec: "Next Wednesday the president will hold a formal press conference at 4pm in the afternoon. So, we look forward to seeing you there and the president looks forward to speaking directly to the American people." pic.twitter.com/VLCgSbU48p
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 14, 2022
The speech is particularly noteworthy since it will have been 78 days since Biden has held a press conference. He held his first solo press conference on March 25, which occurred on his 64th day in office. That press conference was full of particularly bizarre moments, as highlighted in Townhall's live blog at the time, and is also where Biden introduced the American people to the term "Jim Eagle" in claiming that states passing election integrity bills were engaging in voter suppression.
That March 25 press conference was announced over a week in advance. With this one taking place so many days following the announcement as well, many chimed in on Twitter about that detail.
That gives them 5 days to go over his pre determined answers that he will still mess up.
— Carl Spackler (@BillDee15) January 14, 2022
Only media friendlies, questions submitted in advance, no follow ups.
— Jay Stewart (@jpstew54) January 14, 2022
Submit your questions now so they can prepare his answers.
— A. Wilson (@Golfer854) January 14, 2022
While a report from the Associated Press regarding the upcoming press conference tried to spin Biden's lack of availability to the press, even they couldn't deny Biden hasn't held many events.
"Biden has held just nine news conferences so far during his first year, substantially fewer than his past five predecessors. He's done just 22 interviews. However, there have been at least 216 informal sessions where he answered questions after giving remarks or while traveling and walking past a waiting group of reporters," the report read.
This lack of transparency was highlighted in October, as I covered, citing a report from Amie Parnes of The Hill. Tellingly, the White House did not respond to The Hill's request for comment on that story.
What press events Biden has done have been memorable, as he's taken few or even no questions from the press, including and especially as he spoke about the failures regarding the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August.
Biden's first year in office has also been marked by his refusal to engage with the press when meeting with foreign leaders, such as Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India.
The president has also let it slip that he has staffers policing his interactions with the press, such as pointing out that "I'm not supposed to be answering all these questions." He's also been captured, including recently after he spoke about the Wuhan coronavirus, just sitting there smirking after giving remarks while reporters try to get their questions in.
Wednesday's press conference will take place at 4:00 pm.