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Biden makes history as first ‘absentee president’

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 03: Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the 19th Annual HRC National Dinner at Walter E. Washington Convention Center on October 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 03: Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the 19th Annual HRC National Dinner at Walter E. Washington Convention Center on October 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 03: Joe Biden spoke during the 19th Annual HRC National Dinner at Walter E. Washington Convention Center on October 3, 2015 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)

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UPDATED 12:00 PM PT – Friday, March 5, 2021

Transparency and accountability now seem to be a thing of the past for the White House. Since taking office, Joe Biden has signed a record number of executive orders, proclamations and directives, but hasn’t held one formal press conference to answer for them.

In January, Biden promised to address a joint session of Congress “next month” in February, which he may not realize already passed. Biden also claimed he would hold a press conference, but that too has not happened or even been scheduled. This is quickly earning Biden the reputation of an “absentee president,” and we’re not just talking about the ballots.

This week, Biden set a 100-year record by not holding a solo press conference, something that usually happens within an administration’s first 33-days. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said there are still no plans to do so, just as there are no plans to even schedule Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress. This is something that traditionally happens in the month of February.

As what now seems customary for the Biden White House, the speech has been pushed off and made conditional. Psaki said it is contingent on certain legislation being passed in Congress.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Friday, March 5, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

White House press secretary Jen Psaki spoke during a press briefing at the White House, Friday, March 5, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

 

“I don’t expect that, we don’t have any update on it,” Psaki stated. “I don’t expect that the president will be laying out the next stage of his agenda until after we get the American Rescue Plan passed, and we’re certainly hopeful that we do that in the coming weeks.”

During the 2020 presidential election, the Biden campaign promised to always be “transparent” and “open” with the press. However, apparently the only thing “open” about the Biden administration is the open-ended schedule and open-ended answers that Jen Psaki gives to the media. This is something her predecessor Kayleigh McEnany said is indicative of the broken chain of communication within the Biden White House.

FILE - In this Dec. 2, 2020 file photo, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington. McEnany has signed on as a Fox News contributor. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE – In this Dec. 2, 2020 file photo, former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany spoke during a briefing at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

 

“The great thing about being in the Trump White House was I always knew where my boss stood,” McEnany said. “Unlike other press secretaries that maybe didn’t have walk-in privileges to the Oval, I could walk in at any time. I always knew where his head was at, so I didn’t have to do a ton of circling back because President Trump gave a lot of access to me.”

While Biden did offer to take questions from Democrat lawmakers on Wednesday, the feed was promptly cut off by the White House.

Biden earned the nickname “Hiden Biden” and of course “Sleepy Joe” while on the campaign trail, as for the most part he stayed in his basement, calling lids often before 10 in the morning.

“Sleepy Joe Biden doesn’t care about New Hampshire, I saw that. He left this state before the primary was even over,” President Trump said. “He abandoned you.”

In the meantime, President Trump broke records and earned the reputation as the most accessible president in history. He held up to seven press conferences per week during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also took questions from the Oval Office and South Lawn throughout his four years on a near daily basis.

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