Joe Biden's aides stop him from answering media at Washington DC store on his 48th day without press conference
Joe Biden took oath as the president of the US on January 20 and in more than a month-and-a-half since then, he has not held a single solo press conference, fuelling criticism. Recently, the live feed of a virtual discussion held by the president was cut off after he looked ready to field questions. This was widely criticized as well. This was again repeated at a hardware store in Washington DC on Tuesday, March 9, when Biden’s aides refused to allow him to answer questions from reporters. This was his 48th day in office without holding a solo press conference.
Biden paid a visit to WS Jenks & Son, the store which used Payment Protection (PPP) program funds to overcome challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. This was to highlight the changes his administration made to the program to support the smallest of businesses amid the pandemic. The store owners applied for the PPP loan during the exclusive two-week window that the president announced in February for business ventures with less than 20 employees, according to a White House official. The store calls itself the oldest in the capital.
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Biden made a brief speech and toured the shop, accompanied by the owners, for about 10 minutes, before the press started hurling questions at him. Some of them were about whether there was a crisis brewing at the US-Mexico border. The president didn’t acknowledge any of the queries and soon, his aides stepped in to move the reporters away, telling them: “Come on, press, you gotta go.”
The incident is bound to add more to the current administration’s discomfort over the president not holding a single press conference of his own so far. Last week, CNN White House reporter Kevin Liptak said an analysis of the past 100 years showed that Biden has trailed his most 15 recent predecessors in terms of holding a solo press conference. All of them held a solo press conference within the first 33 days of coming to office, Liptak said after going through data. Even Trump, who had a sour relation with the majority of the media houses, had his first solo press conference before completing a month in office, though it was reportedly something far from impressive.
Biden has not even delivered this year's State of the Union speech as reports warn about possibilities of domestic extremism. The 78-year-old POTUS, however, is set to make a prime-time speech on Thursday, March 11, to mark the first anniversary of the Covid-19 shutdowns after the deadly pandemic wreaked havoc in the country.
Biden press conference before March-end: Psaki
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last Friday, March 5, that Biden’s solo press conference will take place by the end of the current month. “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,” she said.
Psaki said this after she was asked the reason for the delay in Biden appearing before the media, marking a break from the tradition. She said Biden has answered questions and is focusing more on seeing the people of America getting recovery and relief in these trying times. “He’s answered questions. I believe that 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 members of the — other members of the media who aren’t here today, and we’ll look forward to letting you know as soon as the press conference is set,” the press secretary said.
“I think the American people would certainly understand if his focus, 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.”
During his visit to WS Jenks & Son, Biden took a dig at former president Donald Trump's administration for providing PPP loans to those “who shouldn’t have gotten the help”. “We found out an awful lot of that went to bigger businesses that, in fact, weren't supposed to qualify for this,” Biden said about the PPP loans.
