White House Quietly Corrects Press Secretary’s Claim on Biden Taking Questions From the Press

The White House this week made edits to an official transcript to correct and add context to a claim made by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre regarding how many questions President Joe Biden has taken compared to his predecessors.

During a somewhat tense exchange on Air Force One on Tuesday, Jean-Pierre was pressed on Biden’s press access and insisted that Biden has answered more questions from the press than Barak Obama and Donald Trump “combined” while they were in office.

Jean-Pierre was pressed on how she came to that conclusion, asking if the metric used was “minutes spoken” or some other data point.

“It’s questions… I just said questions,” Jean-Pierre replied.

In the transcript of the exchange later released by the White House, “questions” had been replaced by “question-and-answer sessions.” Additionally, context was added to Jean-Pierre’s statement claiming Biden took more questions than his predecessors. The transcript reads, “So, [in the first 20 months of their presidencies], it’s more than President Trump and Obama combined, or President Obama and George W. Bush.”

Fox News’s White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich tweeted about the change, which was also covered by Fox.

Notably, as Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher reported earlier in the week, the White House is said to be working on an updated number of the total number of questions Biden has taken during his presidency.
Read the updated transcript of the exchange below:

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: (Laughs.) So a couple of things. Look, as you know, the President regularly — and takes questions from the press informally — informally as well at different locations and different formats.

Right before he got on Air Force One, he took about five very newsy questions for all of you, which I think was very important for all of you. And it’s also for the American people to — you know, to — to hear from him directly on.

So, the informal and informative Q&A that the President Biden engages in the — in with the press corps is more than — more than the last three Presidents [as of. If you think about the informal questions and the formal questions.

And I told — I mentioned to all of you yesterday that we actually had some — some data to share. It’s more than Presidents Trump; it’s more than Obama — Obama — combined —

Q What measurement?

Q How — yeah.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: We’re happy to share that. I’m just letting you know.

Q Well, I would just ask — I mean, just — like, is it minutes spoken or —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: It’s questions. I just said questions [question-and-answer sessions].

Q Number of questions?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Number of questions [question-and-answer sessions]. Yeah —

Q So — so, that’s what I’m asking is what the metric is.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Okay. No problem. That’s what I — but I said —

Q Number of questions.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: — number of questions. Just number of questions [question-and-answer sessions].

Let me — let me finish, and then we can continue —

Q Oh, yeah, sure.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, [in the first 20 months of their presidencies], it’s more than President Trump and Obama combined, or President Obama and George W. Bush.

And here you go. To your question, he has answered over 320 questions, and that’s not even including more — more formal press conference and interviews.

So look, we’re going to try and — we’re going to keep — be consistent in his engagement with reporters.

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