The President of the United States serves the nation as the head of state and government. One of the president’s other duties is to act as a spokesperson for the country, as they are in charge of determining White House press releases and organizing press conferences, with the help of their Press Secretary. In the past few months, President Biden has not fulfilled his duty as the mouthpiece of the nation. In fact, American citizens currently face a major issue; the people’s spokesperson might be controlled behind the scenes.
During several press conferences within the past few months, journalists from the White House press corps have reported that Biden’s interactions with the media have left many public questions unanswered. For example, while addressing the media on September 13th, President Biden was cut off by the White House staff before he could fully provide a briefing regarding wildfires in the western United States. President Biden also told the press that his senior staff instructed him to only call on specific journalists and has instructed him when to leave press conferences.
Even more concerning is the fact that on June 13th, at a press conference following the G-7 Summit, Biden said “I’m sorry, I’m going to get in trouble with the staff if I don’t do this the right way” after calling on a reporter from Bloomberg News. This insinuates that there are people behind the scenes controlling the number of questions Biden answers and who he calls on, as he has also made several other jokes about getting in trouble with his staff if he took more questions.
When any leader of our country fails to be able to conduct a press conference without major interference from his staff, one might question their overall leadership abilities.
More recently, on September 18th, during a press conference with the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, White House officials removed reporters from the Oval Office when they tried to ask questions. Throughout the entire event, Biden never called on a single United States reporter to ask a question until the very end of the press conference, when chaos ensued.
When journalist Ed O’Keefe, a senior White House correspondent, was called on, White House officials abruptly ended the press conference. O’Keefe tweeted that “as we [journalists] were leaving, I asked the president for his reaction to the situation on the southern border. Due to shouting by White House aides, the noise of everyone leaving, and the president wearing his mask, we could not make out his answer.” After the commotion in the Oval Office, journalists from the White House press corps, who are members of the media assigned to report on White House events, filed a formal complaint to United States Secretary of the Press, Jen Psaki.
The lack of transparency between Biden and the press has been an ongoing issue since the start of his presidency. Reporters previously complained that he rambles on frequently and his communication skills do not meet the standard necessary of a president.
Even Psaki admitted in May during a podcast interview that the White House staff members do not recommend for Biden to field questions from reporters and oftentimes specifically instruct him not to take questions.
While people such as Psaki should always have some form of involvement with how the president interacts with the media, total control means that Biden may not be thinking for himself, but rather is under strict instructions regarding what to share with the press and how to conduct himself.
When these accusations were brought up to Secretary of State, Anthony Blinkin, he vehemently denied any censorship of the president and assured the public that Biden was the one making all final decisions regarding the media. Nonetheless, someone in the White House does have the ability to cut off the president’s microphone when answering questions, although it is unclear who exactly has that power.
In light of these recent events, the media is on a witch hunt to find Biden’s puppeteer. Former President Trump chimed in on his social media account with an extremist conspiracy theory: “People in the dark shadows” are controlling Biden.
The discovery of whether President Biden’s actions are being controlled will most likely never come to fruition. What can be solved, however, is the lack of open communication between the president and the press. The Biden Administration, as a whole, needs to begin working on giving the press and the public an unfiltered glimpse at Biden’s presidency to gain a true understanding of who is leading this nation.