The Republican National Committee on Tuesday accused President Biden of “hiding” from the media, noting that he’s only done one interview with a news outlet this year.
“After a year in which he did fewer interviews and press conferences than any president in modern history, Biden pledged a “reset” in his second year. But now a quarter of the way into that second year, Biden is still hiding,” the RNC wrote in a blog post.
So far this year, Mr. Biden has done one interview with a media outlet. That interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt aired in early February ahead of the network’s Super Bowl coverage.
Since taking office, Mr. Biden has done 23 interviews with the media and held 10 formal news conferences. That’s fewer news conferences than any of his five immediate predecessors at the same point in their tenure in the White House and fewer media interviews than the last six presidents.
Former President Donald Trump sat down for 92 interviews in his first year. Most of the interviews were with Fox News, but he also spoke with ABC News, The New York Times, The Associated Press and Reuters.
The 23 media interviews with Mr. Biden include two CNN town halls, an appearance on MSNBC, three regional television stations via Zoom and an appearance with late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon, according to data compiled by Martha Joynt Kumar, a professor at Towson University and director of the White House transition Project.
Mr. Biden has given three formal print interviews.
However, Ms. Kuma’s analysis found that Mr. Biden does take more questions during public appearances than his predecessors. It concluded that Mr. Biden pauses to answer reporter questions during photo-ops, and before boarding or after departing Marine One.
The analysis found that Mr. Biden answered questions at 55% of the events where he delivered remarks in his first year, more than Mr. Trump (41%) and former President Bill Clinton (48%).
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.