President Joe Biden on Wednesday held the first White House press briefing of his presidency.
Certain reporters asked some good questions, including ones about the administration’s plans for taking on China, immigration reform, and gun control.
A few White House reporters also wasted time by sucking up to the president, framing their queries in terms of how great the Democratic Party is and how terrible and undemocratic Republicans are. Unsurprisingly, the useless questions came mostly from the same people who billed themselves during the Trump era as no-nonsense seekers of truth. Go figure.
In other words, the press briefing was better than predicted, but no thanks to the handful of Biden sycophants who sucked up too much valuable time with flattering, softball questions.
In order of appearance, here is every question Biden was asked Wednesday by a pool of pre-selected White House reporters. The useless questions belong to the reporters whose names appear in boldface:
1. Zeke Miller of the Associated Press:
“Can your presidency be a success if you can’t make progress on those four challenges: climate change, immigration reform, gun control, voting rights?”
2. Yamiche Alcindor of PBS NewsHour:
“If you could talk a little bit about which families, why they’re being allowed to stay, what the families that are being allowed to stay, why they’re being allowed to stay. In addition to that, when it comes to the filibuster, which is what Zeke was asking about, there’s — immigration is a big issue, of course, when it relates to the filibuster, but there’s also Republicans who are passing bill after bill trying to restrict voting rights. [Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer] is calling it an existential threat to democracy. Why not back a filibuster rule that at least gets around issues including voting rights or immigration? [Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina], someone who, of course, you know very well, has backed the idea of a filibuster rule when it comes to civil rights and voting rights.”
3. Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post:
4. Celia Vega of ABC News:
“Do you want to see these unaccompanied minors staying in this country, or should they be deported eventually?”
“The Customs and Border Protection in Donna, Texas — I was there — is at 1556% capacity right now with mostly unaccompanied minors. There are kids that are sleeping on floors. They’re packed into these pods. I’ve spoken to lawyers who say some of these children have not seen the sun in days. What is your reaction to these images that have come out of that particular facility? Is what’s happening inside acceptable to you? And when is this going to be fixed?”
5. Ken Thomas of the Wall Street Journal:
“Do you believe, though, it’s possible we could have troops there next year?”
6. Kristen Welker of NBC News:
“How soon will journalists be able to have access to the facilities? We’ve, obviously, been allowed to be inside one, but we haven’t seen the facilities in which children are packed together to really give the American people a chance to see that. Will you commit to transparency on this issue?”
“How soon will that be, Mr. President?”
“Did you move too quickly to roll back some of the [immigration] executive orders of your predecessor?”
“Overnight, we learned that North Korea tested two ballistic missiles. What, if any, actions will you take and what is your red line on North Korea?”
“Diplomacy. Can you define what you mean? And former President Obama warned the incoming President Trump that North Korea was the top foreign policy issue that he was watching. Is that how you assess the crisis in North Korea?”
7. Nancy Cordes of CBS News:
“Is there anything else you can do about it besides passing legislation?”
“On a related note, have you decided whether you are going to run for reelection in 2024? You haven’t set up a reelection campaign yet as your predecessor had by this time.”
“Your old friend, [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell], says you have only spoken to each other once since you took office and that you have moved far-left since taking office. Do you see it the same way he does? Have you rejected bipartisanship?”
8. Kaitlan Collins of CNN:
“Why not abolish it if it’s a relic of the Jim Crow era?”
“It sounds like you’re moving closer to eliminating the filibuster. Is that correct?”
“You just made some news by saying you are going to run for reelection … so, is that a yes? That you are running for reelection?”
9. Justin Sink of Bloomberg News:
“Just to follow-up on the meeting of democracies, is that where you expect in a multilateral way to make these decisions about sanctions or — ”
“I know you have another chance to address the [mass shootings] in Georgia and Colorado. You had said to stay tuned for actions that you might take on gun control. I’m wondering if you’ve made a decision either about sending the manufacturing liability that you had promised on day one to Capitol Hill or executive actions, like going after ghost guns or giving money to cities and states to battle gun control.”
10. Janet Rodriguez of Univision:
“Treating the root causes in Latin America doesn’t change things overnight. How do you realistically and physically keep these families from coming to the U.S. when things will not get better in their countries right away?”
“Have you had any talks with Senate Republicans who are threatening this administration with not considering the immigration legislation that was passed in the House until the situation at the border has been resolved?”
The president offered a brief response before concluding abruptly, “But folks, I’m going.”
He then made a beeline for the exit, ignoring, all the while, the questions shouted at him.