'Mr. President, How About a Press Conference?'

It finally happened.  Out of frustration, Gray Television's Jon Decker, a member of the White House press corps, flat-out asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: "Is the administration trying to protect the president from our questions?"

"Absolutely not.  Absolutely not," Ms. Jean-Pierre insisted.

Decker then pressed Jean-Pierre on why Biden had nothing formal in place on the calendar for the press to ask him questions.  "So why the lack of any interaction in a formal setting to have a press conference?" he asked.

"I mean, the president takes shouted questions," responded Jean-Pierre, her verbal dodge recognized for what it was by the other reporters present.

Noting previous presidents, Decker continued, telling Jean-Pierre, "This is not the norm.  The norm is, we do get an opportunity to ask the questions to the president about domestic and foreign policy issues in a formal setting at some point, and you choose that point, but we haven't had that opportunity in quite some time."