Jen Psaki: Biden ‘Not Surrendering Bully Pulpit’ By Not Talking to Media

EXCERPT:

KURTZ: "Let me circle back, to coin a phrase, to the message question. Now, I know your standard answer is that Biden takes lots and lots of questions after events. Let’s just agree to disagree that that’s a good level of media access. With the President holding so few news conferences and doing very rarely sit-down interviews, isn’t he surrendering a key part of the bully pulpit?"
PSAKI:" I would say the president speaks to the American people nearly every day do, sometimes twice a day — "
KURTZ: "I'm talking about talking to journalists."
PSAKI: "Well, but I think our objective and our role and our focus here is speaking to the public, and certainly engaging in and valuing a free press, which is something we do and the president does nearly every day by taking questions from the media and speaking out about how we should protect the media, as he did last weekend at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner."
KURTZ: "I have covered Joe Biden on and off since the 1980s, including his first presidential campaign. He likes to talk. Now, nobody expected as president he would comment on everything under the sun, but doesn’t he leave a void by not being in the news all the time, not doing these television, or print interviews for that matter, that is being filled by Republicans, activists, pundits, bloviotors? And doesn’t that mean he’s often reacting to the news and not driving the news cycle?"
PSAKI: "Well, we can’t determine what the media decides to cover, of course, that’s not our role. We’re not in China and Russia here — "
KURTZ: "But the president can always make news."
PSAKI: "Yes, but the president can make news by traveling to a Javelin plant and highlighting the incredible role we’re playing in fighting the war in Ukraine by supporting with military assistance. He can make news by talking about how we lowered the deficit for the first time in a long time."