What a difference a change of the guard makes in the White House briefing room.
President Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki, a press and communications veteran in the Obama White House, promised Wednesday night the Biden administration would change the tone — and trust level — with the media, starting with daily briefings.
“We’re building trust,” she said, and declared the way to “combat misinformation … is accurate information and truth and data, and sharing information even when it’s hard to hear.”
But Psaki said President Biden’s No. 1 priority now is reigning in a relentless COVID-19 pandemic.
“The issue that he wakes up every day focused on is getting the pandemic under control,” she said. “The issue he goes to bed every night focused on is getting the pandemic under control.”
And she signaled the president wouldn’t interfere with the Senate trial of former President Donald Trump after his impeachment in the House for his role in the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol, but suggested Biden expects Congress will act on COVID relief amid the Trump reckoning.
“The Senate can multitask,” she said.
“[Biden] is going to leave it to members of Congress to carry out their constitutional duty and determine what the path forward is and what the mechanisms will be, what the process will be, and what the timeline will be,” she said.
She said Biden’s inaugural speech pointedly didn’t focus on Trump.
“I think the intention was not to make the speech about any individual, elected official, any current president, former president, but make it about the American people,” she said.
Psaki also delivered a pair of slick punts on hot-button issues, including whether Biden intends to return to the Iran nuclear deal.
“The president has made clear that he believes that through diplomacy, the United States should seek to lengthen and strengthen nuclear constraints on Iran and address other issues of concern,” she said. “Iran must resume compliance with significant nuclear constraints under the deal in order for that to proceed.”
She was similarly vague on Biden’s position on federal funding for abortions.
“I will take the opportunity to remind you he’s a devout Catholic. He started his day attending church with his family but I don’t have anything more on that,” she said.
Trump’s fractious relationship with the news media began from the very first news conference held by then-press secretary Sean Spicer, and continued through the next three spokeswomen: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany.
