Biden to hold first press conference of 2022 on eve of one-year anniversary of inauguration
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- President Joe Biden on Wednesday will hold his first solo press conference of the year.
- The event comes on the eve of his one-year anniversary of his inauguration.
- Biden is expected to take questions on topics like his COVID-19 pandemic response and the economy.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday will hold his first solo press conference of 2022, which comes on the eve of the one-year anniversary of his inauguration.
Biden will address the White House press corps as he faces historically low approval ratings for his first year in office.
Wednesday's press conference will be Biden's tenth since he took office, following six solo and three joint ones held with world leaders, according to the University of California Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project. That number lags behind his predecessors, presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, who at this point in their tenure had held a total of 21 and 27 formal press conferences, respectively.
The White House has repeatedly pushed back against criticism that Biden's interactions with the media tend to be short and limited, arguing that he regularly engages with the press in impromptu gaggles and facilitates informal Q&As after speeches. The Biden administration also made a return to televised daily press briefings that are often hosted by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, a tradition that the Trump administration participated in sporadically.
The last time Biden gave a solo press conference from the White House and not while traveling was on March 25, 2021. At the time, Biden praised his recently enacted coronavirus stimulus package that sent checks worth $1,400 to millions of Americans, raised the nation's COVID-19 vaccination goals, reacted to the surge in migrants at the US-Mexico border, and touched on the then-upcoming Afghanistan withdrawal.
Since then, he has taken hits in his polling numbers from a chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and a steady defection of support from independent voters that has correlated with his worsening pandemic approval rating.
While Biden was able to pass a pared down version of his infrastructure bill, his voting rights package and Build Back Better social spending bill have faltered in Congress due to widespread Republican opposition and resistance from Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
The president on Wednesday is widely expected to field questions on a slew of topics, including his ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response, the economy, his voting-rights legislation push, and his massive social and climate spending package.
Biden will face reporters on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET at the White House.
This story will be updated.
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