At President Biden’s first news conference following the results of the 2022 midterm elections, the infamous list of pre-selected reporters made an appearance once again on Wednesday.
After Republicans were unable to make more significant gains on Election Night, Biden conducted a small victory lap.
Compared to prior midterm swings, Republicans are now predicted to regain the House of Representatives, albeit by a considerably smaller margin. The Georgia Senate election will go to a runoff next month, and the results of the two races in Arizona and Nevada have not yet been announced, so control of the Senate is still in doubt.
The president informed the media after his speech that he would stick to the questions on his list.
Biden told journalists, “Now, I’ve been given a list of ten people that I’m supposed to call on and you’re all supposed to ask me one question, but I’m sure you’ll ask me more. So let me start off with the list I’ve been given,”
The Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Reuters, ABC News, Bloomberg, The Grio, NBC News, and The New York Times were a few of the media organizations he contacted. He ultimately limited his call to nine reporters.
Among other things, he was questioned about his prospects for 2024 and how he will cooperate with a GOP-controlled House.
In contrast to his predecessors, Biden has held far fewer news conferences. Early in his term, he started relying on a list of reporters chosen by his staff rather than randomly calling on them.
Photos from Biden’s first official press conference showed him referring to cheat papers that had policy notes and what looked to be pictures of journalists.
When Biden told the press that he had been directed to call on the pre-selected reporters in August 2021, people took notice.
At the G20 summit in Rome in 2021, the Geneva summit in 2021, and a joint news conference in Israel this past July, the president did this a number of times when traveling abroad while using lists that had been prepared.
