Republicans slammed President Biden on Friday over a report that said he’s gone 100 days without a sit-down press interview — accusing him of being non-transparent and hiding from tough questions about his record.
Biden’s most recent known one-on-one interview with a professional journalist was on Feb. 10 with Lester Holt of NBC for the Super Bowl, the Washington Examiner noted in a widely circulated report.
Abigail Marone, a former Donald Trump campaign aide and current press secretary to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), mockingly tweeted, “it’s so great to have a President who cares about transparency and the press! adults are back in charge, baby!!!!!!!”
Chad Gilmartin, a former Trump White House press aide who now works for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), tweeted, “Biden has done ZERO media interviews in 100 days. Despite his claims of ‘extraordinary success’ and ‘extraordinary progress,’ Biden simply cannot defend his record of FAILURE.”
Tommy Hicks, a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, wrote, “100 days since the Big Guy sat down with a reporter. What do you think Biden is more afraid of talking about: His failed record on any given topic, or his obvious involvement in his son’s shady business dealings?”
Biden’s relative lack of interviews has been a consistent feature of his presidency.
The 46th president sat for just 28 interviews during his first year in office. By contrast, Donald Trump gave 95 interviews, Barack Obama did 162 and George W. Bush granted 50 interviews during their first year as president, according to records kept by White House Transition Project Director Martha Kumar.
Biden arguably has given at least four interviews since Feb. 10, but none of them were on-the-record sit-downs with professional journalists.
On Feb. 25, Biden taped two separate podcasts — a roughly 13-minute talk with Democratic activist Brian Cohen and a nearly 30-minute conversation with left-leaning Boston College professor Heather Richardson. Cohen said afterward that “I’m not a journalist … I have my agenda and I think this White House is doing a good job trying to enact some of it. Our goals are aligned.”
On March 1, Biden hosted a traditional off-the-record lunch with TV anchors ahead of his first State of the Union address to Congress. He allowed attendees to report his remarks on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden also gave a two-word reply to CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins on March 18, saying as he passed her in the West Wing that his call that day with Chinese President Xi Jinping “went well.” A similarly fleeting Biden exchange with Collins counted toward his 2021 interview tally, according to some record-keepers.
This is an excerpt from the New York Post.
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