Joe Biden’s first presidential press conference was notable for what was missing after predecessor Donald Trump, writes Davids Bauder for the Associated Press: no controversial exchanges with reporters, no Fox News, and no questions about Covid-19. The latest omission was probably the least expected.
Many in the news media had been impatient since Biden had only submitted to a formal question-and-answer session with reporters in the office at the age of 65. When he finally did it Thursday, it was broadcast live on the major broadcast and cable news networks.
Before asking a question, Biden announced that he had set a new goal of delivering 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccine during his first 100 days in office.
And that was it. None of the 10 reporters who questioned him, some on multiple topics, brought up the topic. Note that Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times said in a tweet that the questions “suggest that the coronavirus is no longer topic A.”
“Pretty sure it’s for the American people and the White House of Biden,” tweeted White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.
Four questioners raised immigration and the Mexican border, while three raised questions about the filibuster, the Senate’s mysterious rule that will be the key to passing legislation. Less than three months in office, Biden was asked if he would run for re-election and if Vice President Kamala Harris would be on his ticket.
Biden was sometimes direct, sometimes windy, and sometimes reluctant to answer questions. When a Bloomberg reporter asked specific questions about economic policy and China, Biden instead embarked on a lengthy oral treatise on relations between the two countries.
A gun control question culminated in a lengthy discussion of the president’s infrastructure plans.
Some reporters noted that they were unlikely to be recalled when Biden consulted a list that reporters could take questions from, and made questions on multiple topics – a practice that rarely yields results and is often annoying to the viewer.
While former President Trump’s sessions with reporters sometimes included nasty exchanges, none of that was with Biden. Although he was sometimes pressured, such as when NBC’s Kristen Welker tried unsuccessfully to pin Biden on media access at the Mexican border, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
With only 10 journalists called up, some were locked out. That quickly became a problem at Fox, where the headline “Biden snubs Fox News at First News Conf” was put on the screen.