President Joe Biden recently paid a surprise visit to Air Force One’s press section, one of Biden’s rare off-the-record interactions with the correspondents who cover his White House.
Aside from taking a few questions, Biden used this time to lecture reporters on how they were not meeting his preferences in their coverage of his administration, Politico reported, citing multiple unnamed sources.
The nation’s 46th president criticized the quality and tone of the media’s reporting on his administration, according to Politico.
The report did not specify exactly when the visit happened, saying only that it was on his “recent trip to the West Coast.” Biden is currently in Los Angeles for a Summit of the Americas and an appearance on ABC’s late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” so, presumably, it was en route.
News of this off-the-record interaction comes as Biden’s unpopularity ratings have continued to rise, overwhelming his tanking popularity numbers, according to data from FiveThirtyEight.
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With the nation suffering from soaring gas prices and record-high inflation, Biden’s disapproval rating stood at 53.5 percent as of Thursday, data from FiveThirtyEight showed. His approval rating stood at 40.2 percent.
Biden and his administration, on multiple occasions, have expressed frustration with the media’s coverage of their action and inaction toward solving the nation’s pressing problems.
According to Politico, Biden and his family are unhappy with the lack of positive coverage they think Biden deserves.
Biden and his family, the outlet reported, believe the media focused too much on the president’s dismal popularity numbers.
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Biden’s popularity numbers have been on a free-fall below 50 percent since the deadly incompetence of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
According to the president and his family, media outlets do not focus enough on what the Biden administration considers “a robust jobs market” and “America’s relatively strong economic recovery,” Politico reported.
Biden took some time to vent such frustrations with reporters during his “Kimmel Live” appearance that aired Wednesday night.
Biden blamed what he considered to be sensationalism in the media as the reason his message was supposedly not getting across to the average American.
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“Look at how the press has changed,” Biden complained to Kimmel about the 18-minute mark, after ticking off some of the supposedly “lot of major things” his administration has done for the country.
“With notable exceptions, even the really good reporters, they have to get a number of clicks on the nightly news. So instead of asking a question… it’s just, everything gets sensationalized,” Biden said.
As the president’s popularity continues to plummet, the Biden administration has engaged in numerous publicity stunts to influence the public narrative surrounding his administration’s handling and mishandling of the nation’s challenges.
The most recent and notable examples of such Biden administration publicity stunts include publishing opinion pieces under Biden’s byline in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, detailing the White House strategy for the economy and foreign policy.
The Biden administration is also notable for its bizarre public relations strategy of inviting TikTok stars to the White House so that they could help convey the administration’s narrative to the public.
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The White House also entertained visits from regular pop and movie stars, such as the Korean band BTS, singer Olivia Rodrigo, and actor Matthew McConaughey, as part of its attempts to advance the image that it is doing something amid the president’s falling poll numbers.
