President Joe Biden met with small business owners who benefited from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) pandemic relief loans on Tuesday morning.
Now, a video of the president's aides hurrying the traveling press corps out of an establishment immediately after they started shouting questions at a "confused" commander-in-chief in Washington, D.C.
'Press, We're Going to Move Out'
The incident took place during Biden's visit to W.S. Jenks & Son, a hardware store in the nation's capital that benefited from his administration's recent changes to the PPP, including a two-week window that allows businesses with fewer than 20 employees to apply for relief through the program.
After interacting with the store owners and employees for about 10 minutes, reporters started yelling a series of questions at the president, including one about the ongoing immigration crisis at the southern border. However, he remains unresponsive and looks around in confusion.
Biden's team immediately intervenes and aggressively starts chasing the reporters out of the business. "Press, let's go," the team can be heard saying to the media personnel repeatedly, "Come on press, we're going to move out." Watch the clip below:
The incident comes days after Biden's live feed was cut off abruptly during a virtual event moments after he said he was ready to take questions from Democratic lawmakers, as previously reported.
48 Days Without a Press Conference
Biden continues to face growing criticism over the lack of a solo press conference since assuming office. It has now been 48 days since Biden's presidency, marking the longest a president has gone in recent history without holding a solo question-and-answer session with reporters.
The commander-in-chief has spoken to reporters briefly before boarding the presidential aircraft and has taken some questions from the press after making public statements about the coronavirus and other matters, but is yet to hold a solo press conference.
All 15 prior presidents before Biden held a solo press conference within 33 days of taking office, according to a CNN analysis of data from the American Presidency Project. President Donald Trump held his first solo press conference 27 days after taking office, while President Barack Obama held one 20 days into the job.
It does not seem like Biden will be holding a press conference in the near future. On Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that President Biden has not yet held a press conference because he is busy with "historic crises" linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
