Joe Biden was very upset early on due to the fact that the reporters were asking him complicated questions. Well, what did he expect?
This began like every other press conference with every other president since we had the technology, with the reporters shouting out questions to him just as soon as he entered the room. Did others get frustrated with the press? Sure they did. Indeed, Biden’s former boss, President Obama became famous for telling reporters, “Well, if you would let me finish…” and he was right.
The big difference between Obama and Biden is that 44 realized that difficult questions are part of the job.
“First of all, y’all ask questions about complicated subjects,” Biden began, “subjects such as, ‘can you get this done.'”
His response to that?
“I hope we can get this done. The honest-to-God answer is I don’t know if we can get this done. Is this mic on?”
Again, this isn’t the first time that a president has sparred with the press, and even though it’s only been a little more than a year into President Biden’s term, this wasn’t the first time that Biden has been short with reporters either.
Interestingly enough, Biden’s short temper with the press actually began when he was President-Elect in November 2020. He started his term with a contentious bang, if you will, getting into it with CBS reporter Bo Erickson, snapping at him, “Why are you the only guy who shouts questions?”
In June 2021, Biden again had a bit of a short fuse when a reporter asked him about Putin. He snapped at the person, but he was later forced to apologize, saying, “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy.” Given that Biden has always been a total gaffe machine, we can probably expect many more contentious moments with reporters in the future.
