If you’ve grown weary of watching the media relentlessly firing “gotcha” questions at Donald Trump, then you’ll want to be sure to catch the next Biden press conference — whenever that is. It’s hard to say because the former vice president is still sticking close to home, and his press avails are few and far between.
He held one on Friday, and the Washington Examiner’s Becket Adams describes it as “more like a meet-and-greet between a pop star and members of his or her official fan club.” In other words it was a repeat of news conferences in the Obama era, when the media viewed their job as running interference for the president, not holding his feet to the fire.
Seeing as how it was Joe Biden at whom the softballs were being lobbed, the reporters had their work cut out for them attempting to smooth over the rough spots that come of questioning a 77-year-old man in the throes of dementia. They remained silent — and probably felt a little uncomfortable — when, for example, Biden read aloud quotation marks off teleprompter for non-quoted material.
Another curiosity was this exchange with a staffer off-stage:
Joe Biden asks staff to call on reporters because he doesn't "have his list" pic.twitter.com/c6m1zIM2V0
— Chris Martin (@chrisjdmartin) September 4, 2020
List? What list? Had his team prepared a list that singled out reporters he should avoid calling on because they might ask “tough” questions? Was it a list that contained little headshots of the media next to their names so he’d be able to call on reporters whose names he didn’t otherwise know from Adam?
Inquiring minds want to know.
