President Biden will hold his first press conference at the White House on March 25, his press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
Biden broke a more than 100-year-old record without a press conference as the new president and received widespread criticism from news outlets.
“President Biden will hold a formal press conference on Thursday afternoon, March 25,” Psaki said in a statement.
It is unclear how many reporters will be allowed to attend the event, as well as whether Biden will call from a prepared journalist list.
Former President Donald Trump regularly held lengthy and belligerent press conferences with journalists. Biden, on the other hand, answers few questions from reporters at events.
When Biden answers reporters on the White House lawn or in the Oval Office, his answers are usually short.
Biden, 78, is notorious for verbal gaffes that sometimes distract from his political agenda. For example, last week Psaki had to clean up Biden’s recent unwritten comment to an Indian-American scientist that immigrants from India are “taking over the country.”
Psaki indicated during a press conference that it is possible that Biden will be presented with a list of approved journalists at his first press conference.
The White House news agency sharply curtailed journalists’ access in January when Biden took office – citing the COVID-19 pandemic – and asked some reporters at recent press conferences to raise questions in advance.