President Biden has been in office for 45 days and has yet to hold a single press conference.
According to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Biden is too busy dealing with the “historical crisis” to make time in his schedule to address the country, reporters, or his voters.
On Friday, Psaki was asked about Biden’s absence from the White House Press Room by Reuters White House correspondent Alex Alper.
Alper asked, via BizPac Review: “So we’re 45 days into the Biden presidency and he has yet to hold a presser. At this point in past presidencies, every president from Reagan had addressed reporters, some of them multiple times. So why the delay and when can we expect the president to hold a press conference?”
That’s when Psaki told the group of reporters that Biden had other priorities.
As CNN’s Jake Tapper then very quickly pointed out, each of the last 15 United States presidents each held a press conference in their first 33 days in office.
.@Kevinliptakcnn 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.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 3, 2021
Biden is now on his 45th day and counting…
The White House says Biden will hold a full press conference before the end of the month — here are dates of his predecessors' first press conferences, per @Presidency_Proj pic.twitter.com/R7JnpuOQhT
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) March 5, 2021
See Psaki’s full response below, via BizPac Review:
Psaki: Well first, as all you know, the president takes questions several times a week. He took questions actually twice yesterday, which is an opportunity for the people covering the White House to ask them about whatever news is happening on any given day.
We look forward to holding a full press conference in the coming weeks before the end of the month. And we’re working on setting a final date for that. And as soon as we do, we will let you all know, but this president came in during a historic crisis, two historic crises, a pandemic like the country had not seen in decades and decades and an economic downturn that left 10 million people out of work.
So I think the American people would certainly understand if his focus and his energy and his attention has been on ensuring we secure enough vaccines to vaccinate all Americans, which we will do by the end of May, and then pushing for a rescue plan that will provide direct checks to almost 160 million Americans.
That’s where his time, energy, his focus has been. But in the meantime, he takes questions multiple times a week and looks forward to continuing to do that. And as soon as we have a press conference, we’ll let you know.
Alper: Those though are not an ideal forum for us to be asking you questions. He can’t hear us half the time. We get maybe two questions and then we’re shuffled out. So why hasn’t he answered questions from the press at this point? Is it just that he’s too busy?
Psaki: I think he’s answered questions, I believe the count is almost 40 times. And I would say that his focus again is on getting recovery and relief to the American people and he looks forward to continuing to engage with all of you and to other members of the media who aren’t here today. And we’ll look forward to letting you know, as soon as that press conference is set.