Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki called on President Joe Biden to be interviewed more often by friendly media during her Monday appearance on “The View.”
Biden has held the fewest press conferences than any of his predecessors in the last century besides former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, further sparking voters’ concerns about the president’s age and mental capacity to serve a second term. He frequently refuses to take questions from the press, and often chooses reporters to call on ahead of his question and answer periods with reporters.
Psaki called on Biden to minimize press conferences and instead focus on appearing on shows such as “The View” and Howard Stern’s show.
“Well I think the benefit of the media environment right now — there’s a lot of challenges, but I’m gonna start at the optimistic side — is that there are so many choices. And when you’re communicating from the White House, I mean, respect for freedom of speech and the freedom of press is important, but you’re also just trying to communicate with the American people. So my view is, he should come on ‘The View’ before he does a press conference,” Psaki said.
The former press secretary said Biden can more effectively reach the American public when he appears on commonly watched shows and popular podcasts. The president recently appeared on “The Howard Stern Show” for an April 26 interview, where he vowed to debate former President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 general election. (RELATED: ‘Biggest Threats’: Jen Psaki Says Third-Party Candidates Like RFJ Jr. Are ‘Huge, Huge Problem’ For Biden)
“People want to have real conversations about issues that are happening. I think press conferences are important, but I also think him doing Howard Stern, that’s an interview that reached a broader audience of people,” Psaki continued. “Him talking to the guys of Smart List, which is a great podcast. So if you’re in the White House, you’re not thinking about ‘am I checking the box on doing the most interviews.’ You’re thinking about ‘am I doing the most I can to reach my message to the American people, that’s who I represent.’ So I would say more Howard Stern, come on ‘The View’, you know, more Smart List conversations where you’re having conversations about policy, but they’re real ones that people have at their kitchen table.”
Psaki stepped down in May 2022 after signing a contract with NBCUniversal to host “Inside with Jen Psaki,” which first aired in March 2023, and has frequently appeared as a commentator on MSNBC programs.
The president has often had a list of approved outlets and names of reporters to call on during the White House’s rarely held press conferences. Several reporters told the Daily Caller in November 2022 that they were “disgusted” by this practice and accused the Biden White House of doing a “disservice” to the public.
Biden snubbed a traditional end of the year press conference in December to vacation in St. Croix in the Caribbean Sea.