President Joe Biden’s first solo press conference since taking office will ensure that the public takes a close look at the 78-year-old chief executive, who has faced questions about his age and availability to the media dating back to the campaign.
Republicans dinged “Hidin’ Biden” and “Basement Biden” all last year for a relatively light public schedule and periodic refusal to take questions from the press after speaking, often implying that he was hiding physical or mental infirmities, the product of age-related decline, from the electorate’s view.
Democrats regularly countered that Biden was merely practicing safe and responsible social distancing amid a deadly pandemic while his opponent blithely held superspreader events. Biden won the presidency, but questions about his age and commitment to transparency have persisted.
TRUMP SEES AN OPENING TO DAMAGE BIDEN ON BORDER CRISIS
“It’s incredible what the Biden White House is able to get away with,” Kayleigh McEnany, the final White House press secretary under former President Donald Trump, said on Fox News.
But the questions have yet to dent Biden’s approval ratings. Prone to verbal miscues even in his prime, people do not closely scrutinize his every move or memory lapse, nor do they regularly compare him to old footage from when he was vice president or a senator from Delaware. In the big moments, such as his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, his two debates with Trump, his inaugural address, and his first prime-time speech about COVID-19, he has done well enough.
This will be tested once again Thursday with Biden’s first White House press conference. Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote, “It’s a major test for news organizations and reporters in covering Biden,” too. She quoted Joe Lockhart, a White House press secretary under former President Bill Clinton, as worrying the press will approach the event as follows: “We’re gonna show all the MAGA people we can be just as tough on Biden as we were on Trump.”
Which leads some observers to fear the opposite will happen. “It will be interesting to see just how aggressive and insightful the questioning will actually be from the national media, or will reporters give Biden a free pass that most Republicans expect will happen,” said GOP strategist Ron Bonjean.
“It’s ridiculous the questions that are asked,” Trump complained on Fox earlier this week. “What did you have for dinner? What kind of ice cream do you have, as he walks out? They never talked to me this way.” He added, “The press protects him totally,” referring to Biden.
White House press briefings were often contentious, though rarely daily, affairs under Trump, whether the primary spokesperson was McEnany, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, or Sean Spicer. (Stephanie Grisham also held the position but never held a single briefing.) But since Biden has been in office, his press secretary, Jen Psaki, has been peppered with questions about the migrant surge at the border and whether the media have had sufficient access to the detention facilities in which thousands of minors are being housed.
“Few key areas of interest for me: border, filibuster, and guns,” said Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov. “Interested to see whether he loses his cool at all because left-wing and right-wing media is dunking on the administration for lack of transparency at the border. And how he talks up the American Rescue Plan.”
Biden’s first news conference is taking place on his 64th day as president. Former President Barack Obama did his first briefing 20 days in, Trump on his 27th. “It’s the only way to get an honest word out because the press is really not a free press,” Trump said of the briefings.
The president has misspoken a few times recently, notably referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “President Harris” and mangling a public shout-out to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Biden also fell three times on the steps of Air Force One.
Biden is the oldest man ever to serve as president, taking the oath of office at a more advanced age than the previous record-holder, Ronald Reagan, when he departed the White House after two terms. He will turn 80 shortly after the midterm elections next year. Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease five years into his presidential retirement.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
A successful press conference will once again calm any anxieties the public may have about Biden’s age. A Washington Examiner/YouGov poll released less than a month before last year’s election found that 60% of registered voters were very or fairly concerned.
Democrats expressed confidence Biden would once again defy GOP expectations and shine in the public spotlight. “I’m excited for it,” Tarlov said.
