Pressure is mounting on President Joe Biden to hold a solo press conference after he has set a modern-day record of 42 days without holding one.
Even left-wing publications like CNN are calling out Biden for his lack of transparency, with host Jake Tapper tweeting: [CNN reporter Kevin Liptak] notes that an analysis of the past 100 years shows President Biden’s 15 most recent predecessors all held a formal solo press conference within 33 days of taking office. Biden has not and it’s day 42.”
Republican researcher Zach Parkinson tweeted out a graph showing the length of time that it took all presidents dating back to Herbert Hoover to hold their first solo press conference. Biden was by far the longest.
Biden is setting the modern record for not holding a press conference, and it's not even close. https://t.co/KU4eEyZkHG pic.twitter.com/arBgxDRIE8
— Zach Parkinson (@AZachParkinson) March 3, 2021
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also called out Biden for the lack of transparency.
“It’s been 42 days and Joe Biden still refuses to hold a press conference,” McDaniel said. “Why is he so afraid of answering questions?”
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) questioned whether there was something going on that was stopping Biden from being transparent with the American people, tweeting: “Why is Joe Biden hiding from the American people?”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said this week that the administration has still not made any plans for Biden to hold a solo press conference.
“The closest Biden has come to holding a conference was a brief interview with Univision on Feb. 25, in which he answered questions alongside First Lady Dr. Jill Biden,” The Daily Caller reported this week. “The first lady frequently assisted Biden in answering policy questions throughout the interview, offering qualifiers to the president’s answers on teacher vaccinations and immigration policy.”
“The reluctance to hold a presser recalls the time last summer and early fall when then-candidate Biden largely holed up in his Wilmington, Del., home while the coronavirus and the presidential campaign were churning,” the New York Post reported. “Biden set up a studio in his home and took part in media interviews and talks with supporters and voters via virtual meetings from his basement, tightly controlling which reporters got to ask a question, if at all.”
Republican Party Communications Director Michael Ahrens highlighted a clip where Biden made controversial comments about the unfolding crisis on the border.
When a reporter asked Biden if there was a crisis on the border, Biden responded “no.”
Ahrens commented: “No wonder they haven’t let him do a press conference.”
Obama-era DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said a couple of years ago that a day with 1,000 apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border was “a relatively bad number” and that “a thousand overwhelms the system.” Border experts have said that currently under Biden, there are days where over 4,000 illegal aliens have been apprehended in a single day on the border. During his 2019 interview, Johnson said, “I cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like, so we are truly in a crisis.”
No wonder they haven't let him do a press conference. https://t.co/mCkooNEmki
— Michael Ahrens (@michaelahrens) March 2, 2021