The White House quietly corrected Karine Jean-Pierre’s claim Tuesday that President Biden had answered more questions than former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama combined.
The White House changed the transcript of Jean Pierre’s gaggle at Air Force One reporters to read “question and answer sessions,” instead of “questions”, despite Jean Pierre making the claim four more times.
Jean-Pierre was asked by a reporter if Biden had made a decision to hold a press conference on his trip to Ireland. Jean-Pierre responded that she did not promise to share the data she had promised to share when she was asked about the president’s inaccessibility to the media.
“The President frequently — and takes questions form the media informally — at different locations and in different formats. Jean-Pierre stated that he had taken five newsy questions from you all right before he boarded Air Force One. According to the White House transcript, Jean-Pierre spoke.
“The President Biden engages with the media corps in an informal and informative Q&A. It is more than three times more than the previous Presidents… Think about both the formal and informal questions. Yesterday, I shared with you that we had data to share. It’s more that President Trump, it’s more Obama — Obama combined –,” she said.
Jean-Pierre was then asked by a reporter about the method used to determine whether Biden had answered more questions than Trump or Obama. They had been in office for 12 years before his presidency.
“We are happy to share that. She replied, “I’m just letting it be known,” before the reporter asked if it was based upon the “minutes spoken by Biden”.
“It’s questions. I just said questions,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre reiterated that she meant “number of questions” Biden had answered.
Jean-Pierre said that Biden had answered more questions than Trump or Obama combined for the fourth time, but that this time he also added former President Bush, who was in office for eight years before Obama became president.
“Here you go. He has answered more than 320 questions to your question. This does not include additional formal press conferences or interviews. She said that they would continue to — and keep — consistent in their engagement with reporters.
The White House replaced Jean-Pierre’s “questions” by “question-and–answer sessions” when it published the transcript online. It also added “in their first 20 months of presidencies”, where Biden claimed to have asked more questions than Trump and Obama.
