Biden opts out of press conference with German chancellor as he walks media ‘tightrope’

Joe Biden‘s strategy of maintaining a lower profile than his predecessors seems to be continuing, as the president has opted to skip holding a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Biden is scheduled to host Scholz at the White House on Friday but is forgoing the traditional bilateral press conference, a habit made common over the past three years.

Biden lags significantly behind every former president dating back to Ronald Reagan concerning press conferences and sit-down interviews, and though the White House claims that the president frequently interacts with the press, Democratic operatives familiar with his campaign strategy suggest there’s a concerted effort to keep eyes off the president heading into the 2024 election.

Furthermore, the 81-year-old president confounded media outlets this week with his decision to forgo the yearly Super Bowl interview and cryptic statements about holding a press conference Thursday, which the White House has yet to sanction.

Biden decided not to do a Super Bowl interview for the second year running after sitting for interviews during the final NFL games of the year in 2021 and 2022, part of a consistent media strategy dating back to his 2020 presidential campaign that has kept his public profile much lower than those of his immediate predecessors.

Biden does field questions with some regularity with the press, either after delivering public remarks or while traveling on official and campaign business. One exchange this week, which followed stern remarks challenging Republican lawmakers to oppose Trump and sign on to his bipartisan border security-Ukraine aid deal, saw the president appear to attempt to head off questions that day by alluding to a press conference on Thursday.

“I’m going to be back on Thursday, and I don’t want to prejudice what may be going on in negotiations now, so I’m not going to be answering any questions on this,” he stated at the time. “I’ll be back Thursday to stand here with you and answer all the questions you want about this issue.”

However, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre poured cold water on that idea later in the day and again on Wednesday, telling reporters asking for details on Biden’s declaration to simply “stay tuned.”

And that “he said-she said” regarding Biden’s potential Thursday press conference could raise questions about “who’s really running the show,” one Democratic aide told the Washington Examiner.

Additional Democratic operatives noted that Biden “has never shied away from discussing the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy” but also conceded that White House staff are working hard to limit the president’s propensity for making gaffes during nonscripted events.

“President Biden might not be the same orator that President Obama was, and still is, but in a way that makes him even more relatable to voters,” one Democratic strategist claimed. “Couple that with a White House, unlike under the Trump administration, that wants to put forth a coherent message on each topic, and it’s not that surprising to see the president’s numbers [of press conferences and interviews] come in on the low end compared to his predecessors.”

That strategist specifically pointed to Trump’s history of tweeting out apparent policy changes or running afoul of official messaging lines while making offhand comments to reporters.

“It’s a real tightrope. On the one hand, they want to be out campaigning against Trump and touting the accomplishments President Biden has logged in office,” a second Democratic operative explained. “But on the other, this is a very tight race with democracy on the line, and there seems to be some hesitation there to put the president in a situation where the White House doesn’t completely control the narrative.”

There’s also a prevailing thought among some Democratic strategists that Trump’s “uninhibited desire” to weigh in on all facets of political and cultural discourse, in stark contrast to Biden, will eventually come back to haunt him.

“People remember the tweets. They see the unhinged posts on his website,” one such operative stated. “President Biden isn’t doing any of that because this isn’t his first rodeo, and I’d be willing to bet that most voters care far less about this issue than D.C. reporters do.”

Still, all of the Democratic operatives who spoke with the Washington Examiner believe that Biden benefits from having developed Vice President Kamala Harris as his top campaign surrogate in recent months, claiming that her travel and appearances are helping assure black and female voters in particular about the priorities of the administration.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Through his first three years in office, Biden took questions at just 33 press conferences and gave 86 interviews, according to data compiled by White House historian Dr. Martha Kumar.

For comparison, at the same time in their first terms in office, former President Donald Trump held 54 press conferences and sat for 273 interviews, former President Barack Obama conducted 64 press conferences and 381 interviews, former President George W. Bush fielded questions at 67 press conferences and 121 interviews, and former President Bil Clinton outpaced them all with 113 press conferences and 164 interviews.

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