In the 100 years since Calvin Coolidge was first elected, only Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan held as few news conferences each year as the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Traveling in Ireland last week, President Joe Biden abandoned the decades-old tradition of holding a news conference while abroad. On Thursday, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia met with Biden, but the two did not hold a news conference together, another practice of his predecessors that Biden has frequently chosen to skip. After the meeting, Petro took questions from reporters — alone — at microphones in front of the West Wing.
And despite his press secretary pledging that Biden would "bring transparency and truth back to the government,” the president has granted the fewest interviews since Reagan was president: only 54. (Donald Trump gave 202 during the first two years of his presidency; Barack Obama gave 275.)