Biden struggles with reporter question on border wall
President Biden insists his administration opposes building a wall.
President Biden has done just one interview with a daily news print outlet since taking office, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, noting that the president has not sat down for traditional interviews with major print outlets.
The Post noted that Biden has also sat down with ProPublica, an "investigative journalism" non-profit, but has so far refused to sit down, as presidents have for decades, with the Washington Post or the New York Times for a print interview. The Post reported Biden has granted a sit-down interview to a single daily news print journalist, the Associated Press’s Josh Boak, after nearly three years in office.
The report noted he has held the fewest news conferences since George H.W. Bush, 13 solo press conferences and 17 joint press conferences. Many of the briefings have only included a limited amount of questions.
"He has also participated in the fewest interviews, 74, of any chief executive since Ronald Reagan," the outlet reported, noting President Trump held 52 news conferences and gave 273 interviews at the same point in his presidency.
President Joe Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Biden has sat down for 13 interviews this year, including his latest interview with Scott Pelley on "60 Minutes," and his notable appearances with Kal Penn on Comedy Central, Stephanie Abrams on the Weather Channel, as well as sit-downs with three MSNBC hosts and CNN's Fareed Zakaria.
The White House directed Fox News Digital to the statement it provided to the Washington Post, emphasizing the president's exchanges with reporters.
"The President headlines multiple events every week on the issues that matter most to hardworking Americans that are attended by national, regional and constituency media, has held more than 450 question and answer sessions with reporters (more than any recent President), interviews with traditional media outlets from the television news networks," the statement said.
The Washington Post reported that Biden has done 492 informal "gaggles" with reporters, which critics say allow Biden to "step away when he prefers not to answer a question or wants to avoid a follow-up."
US President Joe Biden holds a press conference in Hanoi on September 10, 2023, on the first day of a visit in Vietnam. Biden travels to Vietnam to deepen cooperation between the two nations, in the face of China's growing ambitions in the region. (NHAC NGUYEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Their report also said Biden has done more of the informal gaggles than any other president, except for Trump.
Conservative commentator Diane Canada told Fox News Digital that the president was doing "safe" interviews because, "the less he says, the better."
"The fact that Biden only does ‘safe’ interviews, and very few of them at that, is his life support for his failed Presidency. The less he says, the better. If he can be seen in ‘just’ the right lighting, with ‘just’ the right interviewer, with ‘just’ the right approach to the topic, it upholds the facade ‘just’ enough to allow Democrats to say, 'see, he's very Presidential.' Unfortunately, the rest of the country, especially suburban women, aren't buying it. This is Weekend At Bernie's and everybody knows it," she said.
Democratic communications consultant Domonique James said Biden's strategy was smart – for now.
"At this stage in the campaign cycle, I’m not concerned about Biden’s limited 1:1 interviews," she told Fox News Digital. "I think it’s a smart strategy to communicate key messages, particularly to young voters and other communities that lean digital-first. Trust in traditional news and media outlets is at record lows while influencer and relational marketing remains healthy and effective, so the campaign has updated its ‘media playbook’ accordingly. After the GOP nominee is officially selected, Biden and other surrogates should recalibrate to pursue all media avenues, especially if it is a Biden-Trump rematch. Trump understands better than most — if they are talking about me, they aren’t talking about you!"
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a New York Times reporter, was critical of Biden during a panel discussion last month where he sat alongside journalists who cover the Biden administration in Austin, Texas.
"They pretty much made it clear that I don't think they - they see that they may be meeting that standard by putting the president up for interviews with, I would say, friendly talk show hosts and maybe getting their message out on social media," Kanno-Youngs said.
"I think there's still value in putting a president up against a reporter from any of our outlets. And if you don't, you know, if you create a void of information, other people are going to fill it with their assumptions, which I think is factored in a bit into questions over whether this is actually a strategy, whether this is potentially protecting him away from reporters," he said during the discussion in September.
The president's team has been focused on reaching younger voters in an effort to connect with TikTok stars and other social media influencers, WaPo reported.
Some argue that the Biden team's social media influencer strategy allow the president to "avoid scrutiny."
President Joe Biden speaks onstage at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation annual Legislative Conference National Town Hall on September 23, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference) (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference)
"For a gaffe-prone president who sounds like he’s mangling or mumbling his words, less may be more," Frank Sesno, a George Washington University media professor, told the Post. "Controlling his access is advantageous."
"What it shows is that Biden should always be judged on his actions and not his words. TikTok Is a spy application for the Chinese Communist Party. State and federal employees are increasingly being banned for using it for good reason. But the president is polling so poorly among young voters… He's ignoring all of this, and using it in a desperate attempt to gain votes instead," Fox News contributor Joe Concha told Fox News Digital.
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Fox News' David Rutz and Joey Wulfsohn contributed to this report.