![A reporter grilled White House press sec. Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday about why President Joe Biden won't take questions from the press. [Screenshot Youtube White House]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screenshot-2023-04-10-at-4.29.22-PM-e1681159299917.png "A reporter grilled White House press sec. Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday about why President Joe Biden won't take questions from the press. [Screenshot Youtube White House]")
A reporter grilled White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about why President Joe Biden will not hold “formal” press conferences.
Jean-Pierre spoke during Monday’s press briefing about Biden’s lack of interaction with reporters ahead of his trip to the United Kingdom and Ireland.
“The second question has to do with the lack of a press conference during the president’s upcoming trip, and the lack of a press conference that we see in general from this White House,” the reporter began. “I represent a news organization that owns 113 television stations, and a question that I’m often asked, and I don’t know the answer to, so I’ll ask you that question: Is the administration trying to protect the president from our questions? Please –”
“Absolutely not!” Jean-Pierre said. “Absolutely not.”
“So why the lack of any interaction in a formal setting, to have a press conference?” the reporter pressed.
“I mean, the president takes shouted questions – I understand, John, I understand. I understand. I’ve dealt with this question about three times already. I understand that it is … the job of you all to ask this question to me, totally get that,” Jean-Pierre said. “And that’s not a problem at all. But, certainly, the president, many times, has stand – has stood in front of all of you, has taken questions on his own, because he wanted to see what was on your minds, he wanted to see what the questions you all were going to ask him. And he wanted to answer them directly.” (RELATED: ‘Clearly Rigged’: White House Reporters ‘Disgusted’ By Biden Using List Of Approved Outlets)
“That has happened multiple times, many times during this administration,” she continued. “And that will certainly continue to be. When it comes to a formal press conference, I don’t have anything to share with you at this time.”
Biden has dodged questions from the press throughout his term. He walked away from a gaggle of reporters in separate instances when questions arose about rising prices, the Chinese surveillance balloon, and when a reporter asked why he allegedly “continues to trust” the Taliban.
One reporter raised the issue to the president in 2022, questioning why Biden had “stopped taking questions from the press?”
“What are you afraid of?” the reporter shouted as Biden appeared to ignore them.
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki also avoided directly answering a question in 2021 about why Biden never took questions from Fox News “when he is given a list of reporters to call on.”