After delaying hosting an official press conference for more than nine weeks into office, President Joe Biden heavily relied on a pre-selected list of reporters to decide who he would call on for questions on Thursday.
Incredible awkward moment as Joe Biden struggles to find which hand-picked reporter to call on next from his list… pic.twitter.com/LWB3QcXyIE
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) March 25, 2021
And it’s a pre-selected list for Biden’s questions!!!
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) March 25, 2021
Biden appears to be calling on reporters from a prepared list.
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) March 25, 2021
While some presidents made a point to use a preferred press list in the past, Biden only fielded questions from 10 of the 25 reporters located in the White House’s East Room, many of whom injected their own agendas, bias, and narratives into their leading questions about immigration, the filibuster, and foreign policy.
One taxpayer-funded journalist at PBS asked if the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border is because Biden is so “moral” and “decent.”
“You’ve said over and over again, that immigrants shouldn’t come to this country right now, this isn’t the time to come. That message is not being received,” Yamiche Alcindor said. “Instead the perception of you, that got you elected as a moral, decent man, is the reason why a lot of immigrants are coming to this country and trusting you with unaccompanied minors.”
Another reporter asked Biden if former President Barack Obama’s suggestion that the filibuster is “a relic of the Jim Crow era” is accurate, a sentiment that he readily agreed is true.
Even though multiple reporters were granted access to the indoor presser, certain White House correspondents such as Fox News’s Peter Doocy, who has a history of pressing White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to answer his questions instead of giving him the runaround, were overlooked and never called on by the president.
"Folks, I'm going."
And with that, President Biden completes his press conference in which he answered questions from his list of 10 reporters of the 25 that were in the room. pic.twitter.com/KvV6i9tLDi
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 25, 2021
Just received word that Fox News reporter Peter Doocy was in the room and Joe Biden refused to call on him
Apparently Doocy was not on Biden's pre-approved list of reporters to call on
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 25, 2021
PRETTY GLARING to walk up to the podium with an approved list of media to call on —
and leave off Fox News and Peter Doocy.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 25, 2021
The president previously delayed official discussions with the press far longer than at least 15 of his most recent predecessors such as former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
