A consistent pattern has emerged within the Biden administration as the White House is often slow to release information and slow to react when news breaks.
Not everyone agrees this is a bad thing, but there seems to be a broad consensus that President Joe Biden and company like to take their time when communicating to the public.
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“Should the Biden administration be more aggressive responding to events? The answer is yes,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. “Should the president answer to every blip that pops up on the radar and shoot from the hip like Trump? No.”
Bannon compares this administration’s low-key strategy favorably with that of its predecessor, adding that “the White House is a bully pulpit, not a soap box” and noting Biden’s relatively cautious stance as a net positive.
However, among critics, that caution has led to unreasonably slow delays in everything from responding to crises to doling out basic bits of information.
For example, the Chinese balloon that controlled news cycles for the last several weeks first popped up in the press on Feb. 1. But Biden did not speak at length about the situation until Feb. 16, more than two weeks later, and even then he did not take any questions following his prepared remarks.
In another example, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg drew bipartisan fire and even calls for his resignation when it took him 10 days to make any public statements about the toxic Ohio train derailment.
Those two cases follow the classified documents scandal that consumed Washington for most of January. In that instance, the administration purposefully chose to respond only to information that was publicly known, waiting until media outlets broke revelations and then reacting to those.
Even routine issues are often belabored.
Last weekend, the White House and Fox News went back and forth for several days on whether or not Biden would conduct a Super Bowl interview, only for it to be revealed mere hours before kickoff that he would not.
And this week, Biden conducted an annual physical that was delayed by three months, leaving reporters to hound White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about what was going on in the interim.
“Grandpa Joe cannot make a decision, and they apparently do everything by committee, so there’s no one in charge to make decisions when something comes up,” said Republican strategist David Carney.
Carney argues that Biden’s advanced age is behind the delays, with aides hesitant to share information with him and hesitant to put him in front of cameras.
Along with the Super Bowl interview, the president also elided the traditional end-of-the-year press conference and often creates confusion when he does take questions.
The day after it was announced that the public health emergency over COVID-19 would end May 11, Biden responded to a reporter’s question by saying the emergency would end “when the Supreme Court ends it,” appearing to contradict his own administration.
On the other hand, what some call a slow reaction, others call strategy, argues George Mason University professor Jeremy Mayer.
“Part of this is deliberate,” he said. “They’re saying, ‘We will engage where we want to, and we won’t be pressed by artificial deadlines.'”
It’s a sharp contrast with the always-on former President Donald Trump, who dominated daily headlines and tweeted throughout the night. Biden’s approach has always been low-key by comparison, which worked out for him in securing the White House in 2020 and overperforming in the 2022 midterm elections.
“We just finished with a White House that leaked like a ‘57 Chevy,” Mayer said. “Joe Biden’s team has that passion for anonymity that every president wants in a White House staff.”
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The idea that the president wouldn’t be ubiquitous in newscasts or making unhinged statements may be part of what helped him unseat Trump 27 months ago. But even Mayer acknowledges that Biden’s staff is likely to be wary about when, where, and how often he speaks unscripted.
“Biden isn’t shy, but his team is being very careful about exposing him to the hot glare of television lights,” he said. “It’s an acknowledgment that he’s not the man he was 10 years ago or five years ago and that he’s likely to say something stupid. Whether that’s actual cognitive decline or just the chance it’ll be interpreted that way, it won’t lead to a good news cycle for this White House.”
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