Although the White House press staff has been generally cooperative and respectful to Democratic presidents over time, President Joe Biden’s 2021 access was a source of frustration for many, including some of the CNN Democrat apologists.
This still happens so often that journalists sometimes take to Twitter to complain about it. Sometimes they even confront Jen Psaki directly during press conferences. We see less often stray articles from national media outlets that choose to make their grievances as public as possible.
Psaki’s response has been consistent over the past year: “Biden takes questions from reporters every day” while he walks the White House halls or when he runs along the White House grounds to get to or return from an event.
It is different from holding formal solo pressers, where reporters have the opportunity to ask questions and hope to hear their answers.
Jen Psaki is well aware of this fact. This is exactly why these events are set up in a way to limit the damage that will occur when Joe Biden responds to a reporter’s question. To keep Joe Biden from being exposed to the media, the Hideout Plan can be activated in extreme cases.
In a recent interview with Chris Wallace of CNN+, the ex-longtime Fox News anchor was able to engage in rare journalism. He did not let Psaki go as she provided her “answer” on the question of why Biden is so protected from the press.
Wallace said to Psaki, “I’m going to come back at you about that”, in response to her “every day” dodge. In his first year, Joe Biden had two news conferences at the White House alone and five on foreign trips. Take a look at this: In his first year, Joe Biden had 28 interviews with journalists. This compares to Donald Trump’s 95 interviews in the same time period and Barack Obama’s 162 interviews. Jen is a better example.
It is embarrassing for the White House to be compared to Trump’s former president, particularly on issues such as media access. Psaki’s only possible comeback was that he took questions from the White House press corps almost every day.
Wallace did not let Psaki get away with it. She explained that a reporter can ask a question informal settings such as group press conferences or sit-down interviews, where they are able to follow up.
Wallace instructed her, “I’ll tell your exactly why that’s so different.” He explained that standing up allows you to take questions, answer them, and then you can move on. However, he also noted that Biden often only provided partial answers, before moving on. It is not the same as sitting down for 20 or 30 minutes with a reporter and then having to – you cannot move away. You can’t duck it. It’s not enough to just sit and answer the questions and follow up. It’s not the exact same thing.
After Wallace kept surprising dropping receipts, she was so upset that she just shrugged and said they would have to disagree.
Watch:
Chris Wallace asked Jen Psaki why Biden has been so sheltered from the press.
Psaki got clearly offended and Wallace actually pushed back! pic.twitter.com/8QHJZPBoxS
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) April 20, 2022
This is what you should keep in mind as you watch interviews featuring Psaki starting from now:
Watch this and remember Jen Psaki is literally an already-hired member of the media …right now. She is about to work for NBC News and she clearly has disdain for both the institution of journalism, and the truth. https://t.co/UZSDK4yVin
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) April 21, 2022
This makes her an ideal choice for the post of Biden’s chief minister of truth, but also for MSNBC. Except that she will be able to make absurd claims about Biden’s relationship with the media at MSNBC, even though she was not a press secretary.
She’s likely going to work there because Biden has gotten so bad at his job, that his paid spinmeisters are finding it increasingly difficult to make excuses for him that aren’t American Baghdad Bob.
