The White House tried to cover for President Joe Biden’s failure to hold a traditional end of the year news conference. During a press briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about why the president has not held the event as the end of year is fast approaching.
White House Covers For Biden On Lack Of Year-End Press Conference https://t.co/XV0c5fGSzE pic.twitter.com/tYcznGmpaE
— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) December 22, 2023
“Traditionally, the president will hold a year-end press conference and talk about his record, make the case directly to the American people — defend some of the policy action he has taken. The president, since it’s December 21st, doesn’t seem to be doing that this year,” a reporter asked.
“Can you explain why he doesn’t want to defend his record to the American people and make his case for his record to the American people directly?” she added.
Jean-Pierre, in response, revealed that Biden has already spoken to the public and also held a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, D.C. a little over a week ago. According to her, the president holds a conference every time he travels and is front of Americans.
In her words, “I think that any time the president travels and is in front of the American people, he does that. He did that in Wisconsin when he talked about ‘Bidenomics.’ He talked about small businesses and how that’s a pillar of ‘Bidenomics’ and investing in America. So, you heard him do that directly to the American people.”
She went further, “Look, he does every — we — we make an effort to do a press conference as often as possible, whether it’s here, at home, or abroad. As you know, he held a two-plus-two with President Zelensky, which I think was an incredibly powerful, important moment for the American people to see what we have been doing to help the brave people of Ukraine fight against tyranny, fight against the aggression from Russia. And you saw him do that right alongside President Zelensky.”
Jean-Pierre also tried to excuse the president’s failure to hold the conference by claiming he was “very engaged” with the media who traveled with him on Wednesday.
“He engaged with them three times: took questions, made a really important statement about Venezuela and the hostage situation. And so, this is something that we really make an effort to do. And — and, you know — and we will continue to do that in 2024: do as many … press conference[s] as possible, abroad and at home,” she said.
The reporter further grilled Jean-Pierre on why Biden’s public schedule for Thursday did not include any press events even when he did not have much scheduled for the day.
All Jean-Pierre could say was that Biden spoke to the press the previous day and spoke to Americans about his economic feats and the Venezuela prison swap.