A White House reporter pressed President Joe Biden on why he will not answer questions from the press moments after signing legislation Thursday.
Biden signed S.3580, titled the “Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022,” into law that adds “additional requirements and prohibited conduct for ocean carriers and authorizes the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) for fiscal years 2022 through 2025, according to the White House briefing room.
After the signing, the president ignored questions from the press.
“Why have you stopped taking questions from the press?” a reporter shouted. “What are you afraid of?”
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A reporter asked Biden about Russian billionaire Elena Baturina, who paid his son, Hunter, $3.5 million to his firm, Rosemont Seneca Thornton, in 2014.
The president has held 8 solo press conferences during his time in office—six in 2021 and two in 2022—then 7 joint conferences, according to the American Presidency Project. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both held at least double the number of news conferences in a year than Biden has thus far, with Obama holding 27 and Trump 21 conferences in total in their first year in office, while Biden held 6.
Former CNN+ anchor Chris Wallace pressed former White House press secretary Jen Psaki on why the president is “so sheltered from the press.” Psaki said he takes questions from the press nearly everyday, and claimed Wallace left out the number of questions he takes from reporters at the White House.
“I’ll tell you exactly why that’s different, because when you’re standing there you can take a question, you can answer it, you can sluff it off and you move on,” Wallace said. “It in no way compares, and oftentimes, he gives a partial answer and walks away. It in no way compares to sitting down with a reporter for 20-30 minutes and having a ‘you can’t move away,’ you can’t duck it.”