Wednesday was one of the most stressful days in White House history. President Biden spent almost two hours calling 24 reporters and answering over 60 questions regarding a broad range of subjects (aside form crime and illegal migration).
NewsBusters continues to be popular. On Wednesday night, covered the questions from Fox’s Peter Doocy, the New York Post’s Steven Nelson, Newsmax’s James Rosen, and Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, we thought we’d take a look at the other questions from more establishment, (supposedly) objective, and/or traditional outlets.
Although many of the stories were dull and mundane, they were filled with examples of reporters doing what they do best.
Here are the top five questions and the bottom five most popular from 20 other reporters. They range from 5 to 1 (with 1 being the best).
Worst Questions
1. Alex Nazaryan — Yahoo! News (part 1)
Yahoo! still exists, Nazaryan sounded like he was asking a question on behalf of MSNBC’s Joy Reid: “You said you were surprised by Republican obstruction of your agenda but didn’t the GOP take exactly the same tactic when you were Vice President to Barack Obama? So, why did you think they would treat you any differently than they treated him?”
Ah, yes. It’s all about sympathy. Will the liberal media ever let up with the “woe is Joe” narrative?
2. Zeke Miller — Associated Press
Miller opened the Biden White House press conference. Just like he did in the previous one, Miller fell flat on his faces for the second. Citing a number of issues facing the administration, Miller offered a comfortable landing.
While I am aware that my colleagues may get into specific issues, I thought I would zoom in on your first year as an office holder. Your signature domestic legislation has been stalled by Congress because of inflation. In a few hours from now, the Senate — an effort in the Senate to deal with voting rights and voting reform legislation is going to fail. COVID-19 is still taking the lives of 1,500 Americans every day and the nation’s divisions are just as raw as they were a year ago. What did you promise the American public that you would accomplish in your first year as an officeholder? What are your plans for correcting this course?
For an organization often viewed as the first draft of history, Miller’s takes are more like the first draft of hackery.
3. Alex Nazaryan — Yahoo! News (part 2
Nazaryan was back with more political framing. “There’s an increasing concern, I think, among some Democrats that even if schools do continue to open and I get that most of them are now opened, Republicans will weaponize this narrative of you — of you and other leading Democrats allowing them to stay closed[.]”
Somehow confused by this question, Nazaryan clarified: “[C]ould school reopenings or closures become a potent midterm issue for Republicans to win back the suburbs?”
4. Kristen Welker — NBC News
The NBC chief White House correspondent worked in a question that, like Nazaryan’s eye-rolling take, came off like it was the stuff of a far-left activist reporter such as Welker’s new colleague Yamiche Alcindor (click “expand”):
WELKER: Let me ask about your domestic agenda. There have been many questions regarding voting rights. I would like to focus my question on Black voters. This is one of your loyal constituents.
BIDEN: Yep.
WELKER – I was yesterday in the district of Congressman Clyburn, South Carolina. He was the topic of your news conference. You spoke with a lot of Black voters that fought for you to be elected. Now they feel like you don’t fight hard enough for them.
5. Maureen Groppe — USA Today
Similar to Nazaryan’s role in reminding viewers of that, he also served the same purpose. USA TodayGroppe still exists, Groppe first inquired about the President’s Build Back Better legislation. However, it was her second question which focused on the Left-led pressure the White House faced. “[N]ow that the Supreme Court has blocked the vaccination or test rule for larger businesses, are you can reconsidering whether to require vaccines for domestic flights as a way to boost vaccination rates?”
The Best Questions
1. Allison Harris — NewsNation
Representing the delightfully objective and refreshing NewsNation, Harris made waves with the presser’s fifth question that triggered its own news cycle as she asked about the legitimacy of the 2022 midterms: “Speaking of voting rights legislation, if this isn’t passed, do you still believe the upcoming election will be fairly conducted and its results will be legitimate?”
In part, Biden said “it all depends on whether or not we’re able to make the case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election.”
2. Jennifer Epstein — Bloomberg
Epstein also triggered a news cycle and a litany of administrative walk backs as, during Biden’s answer to her question about the crisis along the Russia/Ukraine border, he seemed to give Russia the okay to invade so long as it was a “minor incursion.”
Epstein referred to the inefficacy of the sanctions against Russia in deterring it.
Your top foreign policy advisers have warned that Russia is now ready to attack Ukraine, but there’s still little unity among European allies about what a package of sanctions against Moscow would look like. If the U.S. and NATO aren’t willing to put troops on the line to defend Ukraine and American allies can’t agree on a sanctions package, hasn’t the U.S. and the West lost nearly all of its leverage over Vladimir Putin? Given how unsuccessful sanctions were in disarming Putin, should new sanctions be a reason for him to pause?
3. Steven Portnoy — CBS News Radio
Portnoy — who’s also president of the White House Correspondents Association — helped bring up the rear as the second-to-last reporter Biden called on, but he thankfully didn’t use that as a license to lob a softball.
He instead asked this question after Biden had boasted about his physical stamina, and joked that he could push-ups.
[T]Sir, I have a question for you that will bring to your attention. It concerns the coronavirus. And the government’s responses to it. Whether it’s confusion over what style of mask to wear, when the test, how to test, where to test, you know, the public is confused, sir, and you see that in — in the drop off polling on this question. Why didn’t you say to Jeff that your team was satisfactory? Given the confusion in the messages, why aren’t you willing or interested to make any changes at the CDC?
4. Francesca Chambers — McClatchy
We go to an ex-Red Alert for our fifth question. Washington Examiner Chambers editor who asked Biden to clarify point blank “what does the new normal look like for social gatherings and travel” Also available: “what type of restrictions”Is he “imagine being on Americans”By January 2023
5. Pedro Rojas — Univision
Fresh off the beat along the U.S.-Mexico border, new White House reporter Pedro Rojas questioned Biden about whether he’d travel throughout the Western Hemisphere to combat rising Chinese “influence,” but it was his other question that hit home (which was a variation of one from earlier The Wall Street Journal’s Ken Thomas):
[W]Is there a message you want to send to this nation’s residents who find themselves in financial trouble everytime they stop at the gas station, or every time the prices go up in the pharmacies? I happen to come from South Texas where I saw a lot of people struggling financially in the last few months and so I think you — I wonder what is the message you want to spread to them?