More than 50 days into his presidency and Joe Biden is now officially scheduled to deliver his first formal press conference.
“President Biden will hold a formal press conference on the afternoon of Thursday, March 25th,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Tuesday.
The announcement comes after some noted that all of Biden’s 15 immediate predecessors had held a solo-press conference within 33 days of taking office.
On March 7, The Washington Post’s editorial board called on Biden to hold a press conference.
“Last month would have been better, and this week would be better than next. Avoiding news conferences must not become a regular habit for Mr. Biden. He is the president, and Americans have every right to expect that he will regularly submit himself to substantial questioning,” the op-ed read.
It added that while Biden has “shown galaxies more respect for the free press” than Trump and has done interviews with print and TV outlets, “These often perfunctory exchanges are no substitute for formal, solo news conferences at which reporters can ask follow-up questions, answers are supposed to be more than a couple of words long, and the president’s thoughts on a wide range of issues can be mined.”
Psaki has previously defended the lack of a formal press conference as she said, “This president came in during a historic crisis, a pandemic like the country had not seen in decades and decades and an economic downturn that left tens of millions of people out of work.”
“I think the American people would certainly understand if his focus and his energy and his attention has been on ensuring we secure enough vaccines for all Americans…and then pushing for a rescue plan,” she added.