White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was peppered with questions earlier this week regarding why her boss, President Joe Biden, rarely offers reporters an opportunity to ask him tough questions.
One of those questions from Jon Decker with Gray Television, which was actually more of a declarative statement, likely made her skin crawl.
Decker hammered the White House on Monday over Biden’s lack of transparency with the media, and he reminded Jean-Pierre that former President Donald Trump rarely failed to make himself available for questions.
The moment appeared to prove that the far-left corporate media is growing tired of being ignored.
After all, these people played a big role in elevating the inept commander-in-chief to the White House. Twenty-seven months into his disaster of a term, they are getting antsy.
Decker asked Jean-Pierre an abortion question at her daily briefing. He then asked her a follow-up about why the president will not hold a news conference in Northern Ireland — a fact that has roiled reporters in the Briefing Room.
“The second question has to do with the lack of a press conference during the president’s upcoming trip and the lack of press conference that we see in general from this White House,” he said.
“I represent a news organization that owns 113 television stations. And a question that I’m often asked — and I don’t know the answer to, so I’ll ask you that question — is the administration trying to protect the president from our questions?” Decker asked. “Please answer that question if you could.”
Jean-Pierre was adamant she is not running cover for her boss.
Decker fired back, “Then why the lack of any interaction in a formal setting to have a press conference?”
Jean-Pierre’s defense was pathetic. She reminded Decker Biden often responded to questions that are “shouted” at him.
“I have dealt with this question about three times already,” Jean-Pierre said. “I understand it is — it is — it is the job of you all to ask this question to me — totally get that. And that’s not a problem at all.”
In a drawn-out and meandering rebuttal, she ultimately concluded, “When it comes to a formal press conference, I don’t have anything to share with you at this time.”
That answer was not good enough for Decker, who actually continued to hold Jean-Pierre’s feet to the fire
“Just to button it up, you recognize that as it relates to prior administrations, the president’s predecessor, President Obama, President George W. Bush — I’ve been here long enough to have covered President Bill Clinton — this is not the norm,” Decker said of Biden’s pattern unwillingness to engage with the media.
He continued, “The norm is, we do get an opportunity, ask the questions to the president about domestic and foreign policy issues in a formal setting at some point, and you choose that point.”
He noted such an opportunity hasn’t happened in “quite some time.”
As Jean-Pierre attempted to talk over him, Decker said, “I covered the last administration, and I’ll tell you, almost every day, up until the November 2020 election, Donald Trump took questions practically every day.”
Jean-Pierre appeared frazzled by the statement.
She concluded that she would keep him and others in the loop about when Biden intends to hold a formal news conference.
Decker probably shouldn’t hold his breath on that.
Biden indeed lags behind his predecessors in regard to taking questions from reporters in any formal setting. Even when he does, he generally has a list of reporters who have been pre-screened to speak to him.
According to the American Presidency Project, Biden has only gone one-on-one with reporters 11 times during his 27 months as president. He has yet to do so this calendar year.
In four years, Trump held 44 such news conferences — and those were him mano a mano with people who loathed him.
No one ever asked the country’s 45th president for his thoughts about ice cream.
America’s irredeemable, left-wing corporate media collectively worked countless hours to put Biden where he is today, and it still works hard to shield the American people from the facts about his failed leadership and the alleged corruption in his family.
These people want to be rewarded for their pro bono work with at least a little face time with the country’s Democratic president.
But nothing demonstrates how rapidly the relationship is deteriorating than Trump’s name being invoked in a positive manner in an attempt to lure Biden out of hiding.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
