Joe Biden has once again dodged questions from the press after presenting a monthly report on jobs, which, despite showing certain progress in economic recovery, was weaker than many economic experts hoped it would be. As journalists rushed to shout their questions, the POTUS simply turned around and walked away, ignoring all of them without commenting on his departure.
Apparently, it was one of those "I'm not supposed to take any questions" moments the president has talked about on several occasions, hinting that his press team would prefer him not to take any or only take them from specific reporters. At the same time, at least hopes of responsiveness were not raised, as they were at the Federal Emergency Management Agency press conference in August, when POTUS first agreed to take questions but later walked away after apparently realising they would be about the messy US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
While this was not the first of Biden's numerous retreats from press events, netizens did not miss the chance to mock his behaviour.
Many twitterians challenged the wording of some media outlets who had claimed the president had "stormed" out of the briefing room, suggesting that the elderly Biden's movements hardly resemble anything stronger than "rain."
One netizen accused Biden of violating the authenticity of his own press briefing by forgetting to remind the media that he was not "allowed" to respond to their questions.
'Dismal' Monthly Jobs Report
The president presented the latest jobs report for September optimistically – stressing how the economy had progressed over the eight months of his presidency.
"In total, the job creation in the first eight months of my administration is nearly five million jobs. Jobs up, wages up, unemployment down. That's progress".
But despite that, some didn't take such a rosy view of the jobs numbers, with some even calling the report "dismal," as a Fox News host put it. While the report showed a drop in unemployment and a growth in hirings and new jobs, the figures ended up being slightly below economists' expectations.
Almost 500,000 new jobs were expected to be created, according to estimates presented by Refinitiv. Leisure and hospitality indeed saw significant growth with 74,000 new jobs amid the continuing pandemic. Business services, retail and warehousing also saw over 100,000 jobs gained combined, but, at the same time, some areas experienced a sharp fall, like education where over 150,000 jobs were lost even as the supplemental $300 unemployment benefits expired early in September.