It seems that MAGA folks are obsessing over the fact that Joe Biden hasn’t stood at a podium and taken questions from the media some 50 days after taking office. I don’t think it’s because they are so eager to hear from their new president. Nothing like that. They are annoyed that Biden (as they see it) is escaping scrutiny from the same press that gave Donald Trump such a hard time throughout his presidency. Of course, that doesn’t include Fox News, which was always a safe space for Trump.
Or, maybe more likely, they think Biden is being prevented by his press shop from making a fool of himself by talking unscripted in front of cameras, since Biden (as they are convinced) is borderline senile, a fact that will instantly be obvious to even hard-core Democrats once he has to field real questions from a real reporter. He’s hiding, they would say, in a way that a "real" president like Trump would never to.
They like to point out that Trump wasted no time in getting before the cameras to spar with the media by holding his first solo press conference on Feb. 16th after only 27 days in office. He didn’t hesitate, they would say, to face the press and deliver any unscripted remarks that happen to pop up in his head, not holding back, putting on full display his scattershot thinking on any number of topics. They see this as a feature, not a bug.
And Trump willingly took reporters’ questions, they would point out. He happily defended and justified the actions of his administration, they would say, and explained the intricacies of his policies to a hostile media. As if.
Recollections may vary, as Queen Elisabeth might say. I remember that first press conference as a hot mess. To remind myself exactly what it was like, I took a look at the transcript (a whopping 13,000 words long). Some things stand out. First, Trump starts by announcing the nomination of Alex Acosta as Labor Secretary (94 words) and the confirmation of his pick for head of Office of Management and Budget, Mike Mulvaney (43 words), which Trump whines was “weeks late”, “weeks, weeks late”. Biden’s choice for that spot had to withdraw due to the hurt feelings of Republicans and Joe Manchin, so that now even weeks later than for Trump, it remains unfilled. Haven't heard Biden whine about it yet.
Then Trump goes on to talk (91 words) about how, Paul Singer, a GOP donor, had just visited the White House, and how Singer, who had been a Never Trumper, has now gotten onboard the Trump Train, a hopeful is a sign as Trump saw it of the kind of unification (abject loyalty?) that he inspires in people. When I first read it, I thought Trump was referring to Singer as Mulvaney’s predecessor, so unclear was Trump's unscripted way of speaking.
Next, he says “I think I’ll say a few words and take some questions.” Some 3150 words (!) later, he takes the first question, which is about Mike Flynn, the National Security Advisor he had just fired for lying to Mike Pence and the FBI, one of the first scandals of his administration. Flynn was in the job a mere 24 days. Here’s how Trump responded to the reporter’s question:
“Mike Flynn is a wonderful person, and I asked for resignation, he respectfully gave it. He is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President Pence, who’s with us today, and I was not happy with the way that information was given. He didn’t have to do that because what he did wasn’t wrong. What he did in terms of the information he saw. What was wrong was the way that other people, including yourselves, in this room, were given that information. Because that was classified information that was given illegally. That’s the real problem.
“You know, you can talk all you want about Russia, which was all, you know, ‘fake news’ fabricated deal to try to make up for the loss of the Democrats and the press plays right into it. In fact, I saw a couple of the people supposedly involved with all of this. They know nothing about it, never in Russia, never made a phone call, never received a phone call. It’s all fake news. It’s all fake news.
“The nice thing is I see it starting to turn where people are now looking at the illegal — I think it’s very important — the illegal giving out classified information, and let me just tell you, it was given out so much.
“For example, I called, as you know, Mexico. It was a very confidential classified call, but I called Mexico, and in calling Mexico, I figured, oh, well that’s nice, I spoke to the president of Mexico, had a good call, all the sudden it’s out there for the world to see. It was supposed to be secret.
“Supposed to be either confidential or classified in that case, same thing with Australia. All of the sudden, people are finding out exactly what took place. The same thing happened with respect to General Flynn. Everybody saw this.
“And I’m saying, the first thing I thought of when I heard about it, is how does the press get this information that’s classified? How do they do it? You know why? Because it’s an illegal process, and the press should be ashamed of themselves, but more importantly, the people that gave out information to the press should be ashamed of themselves. Really a shame.”
Whew! That was a long-winded way (380 words) of saying it’s the media’s fault that I fired Mike Flynn for lying. I especially like, the bit “He is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President Pence”. Seems he has trouble expressing himself. Anyway, this is the performance that MAGA folks hold up as a shining example of how presidents should talk to Americans.
It’s worth noting that Trump was so stung by the negative response to this presser, he didn’t hold another one for almost a year. That long dry spell must have been pure torture for those folks now losing their minds over Joe Biden's heart-breaking absence from the briefing room.
