After spending most of the 2020 campaign hiding in his basement, Joe Biden has spent the first year of his presidency much in the same way: hiding from any accountability.
It’s not an overstatement to say that Joe Biden is one of the least media-accessible presidents in modern history. Biden has only done 17 interviews so far as president. At this point in his presidency, President Trump had done five times as many. Even Biden’s former boss Barack Obama had given 120 more interviews at this point.
Sit-down interviews aren't the only way Biden plays hide and seek from the media. As a candidate, Biden promised transparency, but he hasn’t held a press conference in more than 50 days. On the rare occasions Biden does deign to answer questions, he rarely strays from the pre-approved list of reporters his staff says he should call on. Biden’s habit of hiding now even has some reporters at outlets like Politico and Vanity Fair – hardly bastions of conservatism – complaining. A few reporters from the White House press corps have even gone as far to lodge a formal complaint over their lack of access under this president.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Biden ducks taking tough questions. That would mean having to defend his dismal record– a record that two-thirds of independent voters now say they disapprove of. The few times Biden has tried defending his failed policies, it has been a total disaster.
Back in July, Biden assured Americans that it was “highly unlikely” the Taliban would take over Afghanistan. Then Biden tried claiming his botched Afghanistan exit that left 13 U.S. servicemen and women dead was an “extraordinary success.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Americans being evacuated off our embassy’s roof in Kabul became the defining image of Biden’s national humiliation.
It wasn’t only Biden’s Afghanistan debacle that has left him shutting out normally Democrat-friendly media outlets. Throughout the summer, time and again Biden said rapidly rising prices were temporary and nothing to worry about. How could Biden honestly answer questions about how prices are now skyrocketing at levels not seen in almost 40 years? What would he say to the 71 percent of households earning less than $40,000 who say Biden’s inflation tax is causing them real financial hardship?
It isn’t only lower-income Americans who are feeling squeezed as they watch the cost of everything from gas to groceries and gifts go up. Rising prices is the top issue on voters’ minds. Only 28 percent of Americans think Biden has what it takes to turn inflation around. Instead of talking about how he will make things better, Biden wants to bury his head in the sand and just hope the issue magically goes away.
Vice President Kamala Harris has hardly done better when it comes to dealing with the press. Who could forget how she callously dismissed questions about refusing to see the human cost of her and Biden’s open-borders agenda firsthand by noting she hadn’t “been to Europe?” And then this past weekend one of Harris’ staffers bizarrely tried ending an interview after Harris was asked a question she didn’t like. It’s yet another viral, cringeworthy Harris moment that will have more Democrats reconsidering her ability to do the job.
It’s clear that by avoiding the press Biden thinks he can avoid scrutiny for his repeated failures and extreme agenda. At the Republican National Committee, we aren’t going to let him. We are going to hold Biden accountable for the damage he is inflicting because Americans deserve better and the future of our country is at stake.