Opinion

President Biden hasn't dropped the microphone; he appears to have lost it. Mr. Biden is turning into a news media evader, and it's harmful to his presidency and the nation. In the past 100 years, only Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan averaged fewer news conferences than Mr. Biden. (A news conference involves the president taking questions from multiple reporters; a one-on-one interview with a handpicked journalist doesn't count.)

So far in 2023, Mr. Biden has done zero solo news conferences. He did conduct two "joint news conferences" in which the president and a visiting foreign leader faced the media together. It should not take a visit from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for the American public to hear the president answering urgent questions from a free press. Presidents also typically interact informally with the media, answering a few questions on the way to an event. Mr. Biden doesn't do many of those exchanges either, according to the American Presidency Project tracker.

Jim Geraghty: Guess what, White House correspondents: Biden's joke was on you

Mr. Biden even joked at the recent White House correspondents’ dinner about how infrequently he takes questions from reporters: "In a lot of ways, this dinner sums up my first two years in office. I’ll talk for 10 minutes, take zero questions and cheerfully walk away." The president and his team promised transparency. Instead, he is stonewalling the media.

It happened again on Monday. Mr. Biden appeared alongside Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to brief reporters on new efforts to force airlines to compensate passengers when a flight is canceled. As soon as his remarks ended, Mr. Biden turned and walked off, ignoring questions from reporters. This comes after the president claimed Friday that he was doing a "major press conference" that evening. In reality, he was doing an MSNBC interview.

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Taking questions from the media promotes public accountability. It also shows that the president is willing to defend his positions and instills confidence that he can do the job. It is widely known that Mr. Biden is gaffe-prone and that news conferences are not his forte. But as he runs for a second term, he should be eager to show he can handle all aspects of the job.

Pick up the microphone, Mr. President. The media is not your enemy.

Editorials represent the views of The Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom.

Members of the Editorial Board and areas of focus: Opinion Editor David Shipley; Deputy Opinion Editor Karen Tumulty; Associate Opinion Editor Stephen Stromberg (national politics and policy); Lee Hockstader (European affairs, based in Paris); David E. Hoffman (global public health); James Hohmann (domestic policy and electoral politics, including the White House, Congress and governors); Charles Lane (foreign affairs, national security, international economics); Heather Long (economics); Associate Editor Ruth Marcus; Mili Mitra (public policy solutions and audience development); Keith B. Richburg (foreign affairs); and Molly Roberts (technology and society).