Maggie Haberman Points Out That Press Conferences Are ‘Generally Not Great Formats’ for ‘Thin-Skinned’ Joe Biden

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman noted the “thin-skinned” nature of President Joe Biden and predicted his stumbles on the stairs to Air Force One will come up  Thursday afternoon’s first formal presidential presser.

On Thursday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, anchor John Berman asked Haberman what she expects to see this afternoon when President Biden holds his formal press conference in the East Room of the White House.

She began by wondering if the president might announce some executive action on guns to “try to steer” the topics of the presser, and how many questions he’ll take, before declaring that “these are generally not great formats for him.”

It’s a point she would circle back to later, but first, co-host Alisyn Camerota asked Haberman “What will you be watching most closely?”

“Well look, I will be looking weather for whether he loses his —” Haberman began, pausing to say “these are stylistic points to be clear,” and listing some of the substantive issues she expects Biden to talk about, before continuing her style critique.

“Particularly what I will be looking for is how does he handle the press?” Haberman said. “He has, at times, certainly during the campaign, gotten irritated with questions he didn’t like.”

“How does he do, what is his demeanor, what is his style?” she asked. “Some of this will set the tone for how he does with the press corps going forward for a while. Listen, it is in our interest, in the Press is interest, frankly in the public interest, for elected officials, particularly a president to hold a press conference. I understand why the White House didn’t think it was in their’s to do one until now, but I think this is going to tell a lot.”

Camerota then asked about Biden’s Air Force One stumble. Haberman replied at length that she expects it to be a major issue at the press conference:

They know that this is a question that he is likely to get asked, they certainly are aware that the video of him tripping went viral and was likely to raise new questions about his health, it is also true that he has not released record since 2019. I think they know that that’s not going to be sustainable forever.

So what I envision happening, and this may not happen today, but I can see them setting a date when they will release more health records. I would be surprised if it happens today, kind of a delivery to the press of what exactly is in his health records, but look, they know that this issue, they know that this is something that has new focus, and they know that it’s something that came up during President Trump’s, former President Trump’s tenure in office. They know that it’s going to continue here. We’ll see how they handle it.

The president released full medical records as a candidate and released a series of medical records during the transition related to a minor injury to the then-president-elect’s foot, but he has not completed a full medical workup in the 64 days of his presidency this far.

Haberman went on to concede that she expects Biden to speak “pretty easily about the substance of what his government is doing,” contrasting that with Biden’s predecessor, whom she said, “often found himself drifting into cul-de-sacs about things like bleach and disinfectant.”

“I don’t expect him to scream ‘fake news’ at people, I don’t expect him to get into theatrical displays or fighting with reporters just for the sake of it,” Haberman said. “That doesn’t mean that he won’t fight with reporters. What I was alluding to before is that he can get thin-skinned when he gets asked questions that he doesn’t like.”

“Senators, which is what he was for decades don’t typically hold press conferences. They do engage with reporters but in a different way. And so I expect we will see a taking down of the temperature but that doesn’t mean that it’s all going to be easy comfortable,” Haberman said.

Watch the clip above via CNN.