Things go so much more smoothly when Washington reporters actually like the person functioning as president. And so, President Joe Biden cleared the very low bar that was set for his first press conference on Thursday.
It’s not that our biggest problems have gone away. Almost 140,000 people have died from the coronavirus since Biden was elected. More than 10 million people remain unemployed. The Border Patrol has gone back to functioning as a full-time child care program for Latin America’s poor after Biden opened the border to all of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Biden got questions about those things but always with the benefit of the doubt. PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor asked Biden if she thought the “perception” of him as a “moral and decent guy” (I wonder who might have that perception) is at least in part to blame for the crush of migrants in South Texas.
Biden gave a chuckle and said he was “flattered.”
Remember when reporters asked former President Donald Trump questions like that? Me neither.
But I do remember when Trump was asked by NBC’s Peter Alexander whether his “impulse to put a positive spin on things is maybe giving Americans a false sense of hope” on the pandemic.
Reporters hated Trump so much that they actually thought it was a searing point to ask him if he was in too good of a mood.
But they like Biden, so there won’t be any of that anymore.
Biden talked for about an hour before abruptly telling reporters, “Folks, I’m going,” and quickly exiting the room. He made it out alive, but that’s easy to do when reporters like you.
