Live Blog: President Biden Press Conference

President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C., February 10, 2021 (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

President Biden is holding his first press conference since his January inauguration, ending a seven-week stretch that makes him the longest-serving president to go without a news conference since Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge assumed the office nearly 100 years ago. Reporters are expected to press Biden on a number of hot-button issues, including: the crisis at the border; the recent spate of mass shootings, which have prompted a renewed gun-control push from congressional Democrats; the increasingly boisterous calls from his Democratic allies to kill the filibuster; and the $3 trillion infrastructure-and-jobs package that he is expected to announce next week, which comes on top of the $1.9 trillion COVID-stimulus bill passed earlier this month.

Follow along for live coverage below:

Tobias Hoonhout

Reporters are currently awaiting the president:

Awaiting @JoeBiden’s first formal press conference as president pic.twitter.com/TD9ECkMbBl
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) March 25, 2021

The socially distant room for Biden’s first news conference pic.twitter.com/GN0VNjPAr7
— Anita Kumar (@anitakumar01) March 25, 2021

pic.twitter.com/8U1tb1OqGz
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) March 25, 2021

Tobias Hoonhout

Take a moment to compare these preview headlines:

From the Los Angeles Times (“Biden unleashed: A belated first news conference will test his new verbal discipline”) and the Washington Post (“Biden once called himself a ‘gaffe machine.’ His first presidential news conference will test his discipline.”).

Jim Geraghty has some thoughts on “Biden’s so-called ‘new verbal discipline.’”

Tobias Hoonhout

. . . And here is David Harsanyi with 12 questions that reporters should ask Biden — including “your son Hunter likely lied to the FBI on a background check form to purchase a firearm. Do you believe that existing firearms laws should be more vigorously enforced before passing new ones?”

Tobias Hoonhout

Welcome to our live coverage of President Biden’s press conference.

NR's Ryan Mills has the background on what to expect from the 25 reporters in the room.

“In an appearance on Fox on Monday, former President Donald Trump predicted that Biden will receive ‘softballs’ from a press that ‘protects him totally.’”