Biden and Trump: A contrast of styles at debut press conference
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WASHINGTON • Sporting a red tie, Mr Donald Trump - combative, goading, sometimes angry and insulting. Wearing a blue tie with stripes, Mr Joe Biden - calm, amiable, sometimes stumbling and hesitant.
From Feb 16, 2017 to March 25, 2021: two debut press conferences at the White House by two presidents of the same generation but with radically different styles.
After nearly four weeks in power, Mr Trump, a political novice, frustrated by characterisations of the start of his presidency as chaotic, let loose on the media in a torrent of words.
After nine weeks in the White House, Mr Biden, a veteran of Washington politics, struck a different note, providing reassurances but no real surprises in a genial tone aimed at seeking a kind of complicity with his interrogators.
The setting was the same: the East Room of the White House.
Mr Trump was both the centre of attention and producer of his press conferences. He set the rules, the tone, the tempo.
His moods shifted constantly and he chose which journalists asked the questions and gave them compliments or insults.
Mr Biden provided a more "presidential" spectacle. Like Mr Barack Obama, Mr Biden chose the questioners from a list that had been prepared ahead of time.
He appeared only once to flash his temper, when asked about Republican attempts to restrict voting rights of minorities.
It was all markedly different from four years ago when Mr Trump's main target was the press itself.
The then-President lashed out at a "dishonest" media which he said was not telling the truth about the "incredible progress" made since he had taken office.
While no longer at the podium, Mr Trump did make an appearance of sorts at Mr Biden's press conference, where the Democratic President was asked if he expected to face the Republican again in 2024.
"My predecessor. Oh God, I miss him," Mr Biden said, laughing.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
