White House reporters reflect on covering reclusive Biden, what they hope for in covering Trump
Reporters who covered the Biden White House are reflecting on what proved to be one of the least accessible presidents in modern history as they prepare to again cover one of the more accessible, if less predictable ones, in Donald Trump.
Biden's lone term turned out to be defined in part by his historic decision to not seek a second term that was fueled concerns about his age and mental cognition, concerns often flatly dismissed as nonsense by his press team. One White House reporter who covered Biden told Fox News Digital that the mental acuity issue was the "third rail" for the administration, a term for something too touchy to discuss.
"This was something that you knew would put you in the penalty box if you asked about or speculated, and there were a number of large publications who were more than happy to do splashy write-ups about how Joe Biden leads," they said. "But somehow this issue, a central issue, didn't come out until the Atlanta debate made it inescapable, and I'm not certain that a lot of the folks who are patting themselves on the back deserve it."
Biden's team did a "really good job of hiding him," they added.
"There were good days and bad days for Joe Biden, like he was on his A-game more than once. But then when it slipped, it slipped hard. So that's a story that I think got overlooked, and it's to the detriment of the press corps," the White House reporter said.
The Biden White House won media plaudits in 2021 for bringing back the daily press briefings after they were held inconsistently in the Trump years. In fact, Biden's first press secretary Jen Psaki held more briefings (224) than all of Trump's press secretaries combined (205), according to Business Insider.
However, while Psaki, now a host on MSNBC, and Karine Jean-Pierre had generally consistent sparring sessions with the press, Biden himself was far less accessible, holding just 37 formal news conferences across his four years as of Dec. 20, less than half (88) of those held by predecessor and soon-to-be successor Donald Trump, according to the American Presidency Project. It was also far less than the 163 held by President Obama over his eight years in office.
Biden had 481 informal exchanges with reporters, according to the group, also far less than Trump's 781 during his first four years. It was far more, however, than Obama's 201 during his two terms.
Biden entered office as by far the oldest elected president in history at age 78. It became increasingly clear that keeping him cordoned off was a deliberate strategy, due to his propensity at times for putting his foot in his mouth, such as when he forgot an Indiana congresswoman, the late Jackie Walorski, had died weeks earlier in 2022.
Jean-Pierre memorably laughed at then-CNN host Don Lemon when he wondered in 2022 if Biden, then 79, had the stamina to carry on with a second term.
"That is not a question that we should be even asking," Jean-Pierre said. "Just look at the work he does. And look how he's delivering for the American public."
Biden’s team and even some allies in the media fumed over Special Counsel Robert Hur calling him an "elderly man with a poor memory" in his report released last year about his handling of classified material. They also attempted to discredit a critical Wall Street Journal report about his behind-the-scenes demeanor and referred to on-camera examples of the president’s advanced age as "cheap fakes," until the disastrous presidential debate in June put such concerns center stage.
PRESIDENT BIDEN RELEASES FAREWELL LETTER, SAYS IT’S BEEN ‘PRIVILEGE OF MY LIFE TO SERVE THIS NATION'
The president was widely criticized for looking and sounding frail and listless, while repeatedly losing his train of thought mid-sentence. While White House staffers initially insisted it was just a bad night, the media’s about-face was evident and Biden eventually dropped out of the race amid mounting pressure from powerful Democrats.
Now as Trump returns to office, it's hard to forget the intense, mutual antagonism between many White House reporters and the president that defined 2017 to 2021. Liberal CNN anchor Jim Acosta, who clashed repeatedly with Trump and his spokespersons in bombastic fashion as the network's White House correspondent at the time, even monologued last Thursday about the press not being the "enemy of the people."
The White House reporter told Fox News Digital that journalists should be mindful of not making every story a national emergency once Trump returns.
"Access to Trump is going to be better than access to Biden because the man loves the spotlight," they said.
"We all know this after covering him for the better part of a decade. And it's going to be up to reporters to be as aggressive and fair as possible," the White House scribe continued. "[But] if they were the kind of reporters who asked Joe Biden about how decent he was, or asked a real softball process question right out of the gate, you know, maybe there's a little self-reflection that's in order before they are guns blazing, because they did not cover themselves in glory when dealing with the Biden administration."
The reporter added, "So, if you go from 0 to 100, then you'd better be careful to make certain that the story that you're publishing merits that 100-miles-per-hour."
KAROLINE LEAVITT VOWS MORE PRESS ACCESS TO TRUMP THAN BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
Trump announced Karoline Leavitt will serve as his press secretary, making the 27-year-old the youngest person to hold that title in U.S. history. Leavitt, who was a fierce and loyal defender of Trump throughout his campaign, has vowed that Trump will be more accessible to the press than Biden was.
"If you talk to reporters who sit inside that briefing room, they have been incredibly frustrated with the lack of access and transparency from the Biden White House," Leavitt told Dana Perino on "America’s Newsroom" last month.
"I can assure them of one thing, their access to the president and transparency will increase when President Trump is back in the Oval Office," she added. "We saw that in his first term, he often brought the press into the Oval Office when he was signing bills. I can expect that is going to continue."
Another reporter who covered Biden's White House said he was let down by his press team, adding they knew Trump's unit would spar with journalists as well.
"President Biden had a long record of mixing it up with reporters, but his staff did everything they could to wall him off from the press," they said. "Biden's team decided early on to take a hostile and combative tone with the press that did not do the president any favors."
As for Trump, they added, "I expect the Trump team to be combative, but that's fine as long as they take our questions."
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.