President Joe Biden says he is looking forward to holding a press conference.
During an event on Thursday, a reporter asked, “Maybe a press conference soon, Mr. President?”
“We look forward to that,” she added.
Biden responded, “Me too.”
REPORTER: "Maybe a press conference soon, Mr. President? We look forward to that."
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 13, 2022
*laughs*
BIDEN: "Me too." pic.twitter.com/mmQ1PruEqV
At a separate point during the event, another reporter tried to ask the president about the government’s response to the virus.
“We’ll talk about that later, c’mon,” Biden responded.
Other reporters also tried to get answers to shouted questions. However, Biden did not respond to them.
Biden gets annoyed at reporters asking him questions about his handling of Covid: “We’ll talk about that later, c’mon” pic.twitter.com/wn6Tslt3ij
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 13, 2022
The request for a press conference comes as Biden nears the end of his first year in office, during which he held fewer press conferences than the last five most recent presidents.
As the Associated Press (AP) notes, “The 46th president has held just nine formal news conferences — six solo and three jointly with visiting foreign leaders. Ronald Reagan, whose schedule was scaled back early in his first term in 1981 after an assassination attempt, is the only recent president to hold fewer first-year news conferences.”
Additionally, Biden gave just 22 interviews which is less than the last six of his predecessors at the same point in their presidencies.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has argued that formal press conferences are not necessary for reporters to ask Biden questions. However, the AP points out that informal exchanges with Biden “often don’t allow for follow-up questions, and Biden can ignore questions he might not want to answer.”
In November, Psaki was asked if Biden would hold a press conference after he met with the leaders of Canada and Mexico.
“I would not expect, no. But you can ask questions in any format, right? I don’t think you need a formal embroidered chair for it,” she responded.
When CBS News’ Steven Portnoy told the press secretary, “We would like a press conference,” she replied, “OK.”
