We’ve done a lot of reporting on Joe Biden’s hiding from the press.
But we’re not the only folks who have noticed. It’s prompted a lot of comment, not just about Biden ducking the press, but his staff’s fervent efforts to try to wall him off from questions.
Here’s what it looked like yesterday. The hiding and lack of transparency is not a good look. Meanwhile, Biden just smirks as his folks scream at the media to leave.
Biden refuses to answer questions about Russia and Ukraine, instead staring blankly as his staff ushers the media out of the room pic.twitter.com/X4oB6p46Vj
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 9, 2021
The GOP response folks aren’t being silent about this. They dropped a new report that lays out all Biden’s hiding, even calling him “Hidin’ Biden” and the “Hider-in-Chief.”
Joe Biden is the least accessible president in modern history.
👉ZERO Sunday show interviews
👉TWO interviews in the last six months
👉FEWER press conferences & interviews than past 5 presidentshttps://t.co/4V7IvFJ8mm— Jacki Kotkiewicz (@jackikotkiewicz) December 10, 2021
Biden has made it harder on the media, in part because he’s “spending three times as many weekends” away at Camp David or his homes in Delaware, the report shows.
Turns out the American Presidency Project keeps records on this kind of thing and they confirm that Biden has given fewer press conferences and interviews than the past five presidents, so the GOP seems on target with calling Biden the “least accessible.”
Biden hasn’t done an interview since Nov. 8, when he did a very limited interview with a local station. That interview showed why he generally doesn’t give them because he claimed that his bad polling numbers were due to Americans having “psychological scars” from the pandemic. It isn’t because he has issues or they have him accurately pegged. Americans who think he is bad have to be scarred and wrong in some way.
When even the media has to admit there’s a problem when it comes to Biden, you know it’s bad.
WATCH: Politico’s Jonathan Lemire says “there has been LESS media access” under Biden than Trump. pic.twitter.com/OD9XPcMEra
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 8, 2021
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed that Biden would likely be involved in a “whole bevy of interviews” to sell his agenda three weeks ago, but he hasn’t had one since.
Jen Psaki promised three weeks ago that Biden would do a “whole bevy” of interviews to sell his failed agenda.
He’s done zero. pic.twitter.com/7tg4i5RDrY
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 6, 2021
Now, Biden is giving an interview to the Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon as we reported earlier. But no offense to Fallon, but that’s hardly a serious interview. Indeed, a late-night interview is almost guaranteed to be a cushy softball affair.
Meanwhile, there are a ton of serious questions that are going unanswered, from Russia and Ukraine to inflation. But Joe being Joe, we can almost guarantee a gaffe will come. Whether Jill Biden and the Democrats want to acknowledge the issues or not, there’s a reason that the Biden team is working overtime making Biden less accessible.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member