Samuel Case, FISM News
As President Joe Biden closes in on one year in office, he has held fewer press conferences than five of his immediate predecessors during the same time period and fewer news interviews than the previous six.
According to an analysis conducted by Martha Joynt Kumar, a professor at Town University and director of the White House Transition Project, President Biden has held a total of 9 formal press conferences and 22 interviews through Dec. 31.
President Reagan is the only other president in recent history to hold fewer press conferences in his first year than Biden, though Kumar says this was largely due to his scaled-back schedule after he was wounded in a failed assassination attempt in March of 1981. However, Raegan still outpaced Biden in terms of interviews, holding 59 that year.
While Biden has been lackluster with formal interviews, he has been more available for informal Q&A sessions than most of his predecessors, having 216 of these exchanges in 2021. Biden comes in second place to Bill Clinton for who had 245 informal Q&As in his first year. These exchanges include quick comments from the President while leaving the White House or at photo-ops.
However, Kumar notes that Biden’s answers are typically brief. “While President Biden has taken questions more often at his events than his predecessors, he spends less time doing so.”
The data also found that, contrary to popular belief among his critics, Biden answered press questions at 55% of the time following speaking events, beating out Clinton (48%) and Trump (41%). However, similar to his replies to informal questions, Kumar says Biden’s answers are usually “short” and with “few follow-ups” after a speaking event.