President Biden told members of the press on Thursday, “You all have a really tough job,” especially with the “exceedingly small number of people watching mainstream television and reading the newspapers.”
During the Thanksgiving photo op at the Nantucket Fire Department in Nantucket, Massachusetts, he cited a recent study that showed that only 35% of people who responded are happy with the direction of the country.
“This is not a criticism of the press,” Biden continued. “[But] when you turn on the television, you don’t see a lot of good news, even stuff that is good news doesn’t seem to sell very well. And so when you turn on TV, everything looks bad. Everything!”
He added, “And now you have to deal with the exceedingly small number of people watching mainstream television and reading the newspapers” and that “the numbers are way down.”
As more and more people get their news from social media or other nontraditional sources, Biden expressed concern with accuracy and sourcing of news. “Where do you get your news? And how do you know what you’re getting is not just what you’re looking for or what’s really happening?”
He shifted into talking about the transition of power to president elect Donald Trump, saying, “I want to make sure this transition goes smoothly,” obliquely referencing Trump’s stated plans for enacting mass deportations and adding tariffs to imported goods. “All this talk about what he’s going to do, I think there may be a little bit of internal reckoning on his part… So it remains to be seen,” he said.
Watch his remarks in the embedded video above.
