Obama Avoids Tough Questions from Press, Again

By: Chip Reid
Topics: White House

(Credit: AP)

You may recall that on Monday President Obama refused take any questions from the press (irony alert!) immediately after signing the "Press Freedom Act" in the Oval Office. The president, who hasn't held a prime time press conference since last July, said this was not a press conference and he would have something later in the week.

He was presumably referring to today's scheduled "Joint Press Conference" with Mexican President Calderon in the Rose Garden. But so-called "press conferences" with foreign leaders usually allow for only two questions from the White House press corps and two from foreign reporters.

But today he said there was time for only one from each side. And in what I suspect was a White House effort to assure that the questioning was limited to immigration and other issues of U.S.-Mexico concern, he called on the Univision reporter from the U.S. side.

So if his goal was to avoid answering any tough questions about yesterday's elections, or the oil spill in the Gulf, or financial regulation, or Iran, or Afghanistan -- he succeeded.

As he and President Calderon turned to walk back toward the Oval Office I asked, loudly enough for him to hear, if he had any comment on the elections. No response.

I then shouted "Do you have any plans for a REAL press conference?" No response, not that I expected one.

Press Freedom, Sure. But No Questions.
Obama, Calderon Slam Arizona Immigration Law

Chip Reid is CBS News' chief White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here.

Chip Reid
Chip Reid is CBS News' national correspondent.

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by kma650 May 27, 2010 1:13 PM EDT: Chip, you're my hero, for now. LOL

Bob; Reply to this comment


by swcgluck May 21, 2010 6:11 AM EDT: Chip, if you're reading this:
What exactly is your purpose there at the White House? If the president won't deign to answer any question, what is the need for any physical presence there whatsoever? Just a cameraman will do.; Reply to this comment

by fitnavygirl May 20, 2010 5:23 PM EDT

bobnjersey, who exactly do you mean by 'you people'? By the way, you are correct...obama has a long list of aids and advisors. THOSE are the morons! They do NOT have our country's best interest at heart, as they are trying desperately to destroy everything that America has been built on and stands for. Therefore, I believe what our friend is referring to above is that he (obama) knows nothing about what the majority of the people want in AZ. I, on the other hand feel that obama knows VERY well what we want and what we believe in, BUT, mr. obama has his own agenda and would rather sit on his high-horse cutting down America as if he is God. It's disgusting. Worst 'president' we could ever have right now. He is a bonafide man-child playing president right now.

Reply to this comment


by cysusa May 21, 2010 2:38 PM EDT: I totally agree. Not one of the people in the administration cares what the majority of Americans want. The president certainly does not care as his apology tour, pushing health care and lack of action to secure the borders so clearly show. I think they all know that people are angry but they believe they know best and we are just too ignorant to figure it out. These people are shameless.


by exaag May 20, 2010 2:29 PM EDT: In 1927 Lenin told the dock workers in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) that nobody has the right to criticize the government just because they own a printing press. In 2010 Comrade Obama says that news and information are a "distraction" that diverts our attention from the goodness of his administration. In other words, Obama is in power and we should all shut up and not ask questions. Yessir, now, what was that about liberal Democrats being Americans?; Reply to this comment


by exaag May 20, 2010 2:25 PM EDT: it seems that "astoundedone" attempted to include just about every incorrect factual representation possible in just one blog. First, over the past 60 years (i.e., 1950 until 2010) the DEMOCRATS ran both houses of Congress from 1952 until 1994, and from 2006 to the present. That is 46 years. During that same time we had Democrat Presidents Kennedy/Johnson (1960-1968) Carter (1976-1980) Clinton (1992-2000)and the current moron. The GOP, on the other hand, had Ike (1952-60), Nixon/Ford (1968-1976), Reagan/Bush (1981-1992) and GW Bush (2000-2008). Of those, only GW Bush had a GOP Congress to support him, and that was just for 6 years. Secondly: Before the Dems took over Congress in 2006 and quashed mortgage and banking reform, Social Security Reform, etc. in favor of get-even "investigations", unemployment was 4.2% and the DOW was over 14,000. The idea that one party caused all of our problems is simply too moronic to have come from a thinking adult.; Reply to this comment


by astoundedOne May 20, 2010 1:39 PM EDT: Wow, no wonder this country has gone to hell in a hand cart. You want the Wizard of Oz in the white house, someone to make all the crap of the last sixty years (mostly under Republican leadership?) to magically vanish in a year, you bad mouth the only person doing squat for anyone (heathcare reform of ANY kind, financial regulation to prevent another disaster, and a black man decrying racial prejudice in Arizona). What a bunch of hypocrites you all are. If you can't see that Arizona is legalizing prejudice and Tea Party supported candidates like Paul who support segregation as free speech is just bald faced bigotry, that corporate greed and malfeasance got us into this Depression, that we are sheep following sound bites from the most biased and often uninformed in our country (Palin and her brood, making millions by saying little to nothing), then you deserve everything you get; be it unemployment, forced pregnancy (once they abolish a woman's right to choose), racial profiling and segregation, and the biggest financial melt down ever seen in the world.; Reply to this comment


by msa651 May 20, 2010 1:26 PM EDT: About time broadcast news started waking up.; Reply to this comment

by mish78 May 20, 2010 11:17 AM EDT

Chip is arrogant and full of himself. I don't remember you asking Bush or anyone else "tough" questions about the IRAQ war run up or TRAP when Bush was running the country into the ground and leaving Dems to get us out of this mess.

Reply to this comment


by Fight4Rights May 20, 2010 11:58 AM EDT: mish78...So, you are admitting that Obama is just as dumb as Bush. Good call. Dems haven't done crap. Just because someone claims that there is a tooth fairy doesn't mean she exists. Keep following sheeple.

by tsigili May 20, 2010 10:08 AM EDT

Of course he avoids the questions......he has NO answers.

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by geneleone May 20, 2010 4:49 PM EDT: Well, you're mostly right. You forget about "Mr. Teleprompter", without which he would have NO answers.

by infonato61 May 20, 2010 1:33 AM EDT

He didn't take any questions because he knows they'll ask him about the AZ immigration bill which he knows nothing about. Like Holder, Napolitano his Sec of State and Asst Sec of State. What a joke this administration makes of the Presidency. Transparent?........

Reply to this comment


by RobAla May 20, 2010 7:06 AM EDT: Absolutely. How about all this transparency in this administration? How about forcing a horrible health care bill a majority of Americans who didn't want it? How about this President standing with a foreign leader and bad mouthing Americans (people of Arizona)?

Does anyone believe he has the good of the American people at heart? It is all about empowering the federal government over the people, and "remaking" our democratic republic into a socialist democracy.


by bobnjersey May 20, 2010 9:48 AM EDT: [He didn't take any questions because he knows they'll ask him about the AZ immigration bill which he knows nothing about. ]

really? are you a moron ... or are you just kidding?

so ... according to you ... the president of the us ... who has a long list of aids and advisors ... has no idea what the tenants of the arizona immigration law outlines?

how exactly do you people get thru the day? who's helping you?