Trump falsely claims Biden was ‘reading’ answers at his news conference

Donald Trump has falsely claimed that Joe Biden was “reading” his answers to “softball” questions during his White House press conference.

Mr Biden spoke for almost two hours as he touted his successes during a “year of challenges” and said that his administration had made “enormous progress.”

But that was not good enough for his predecessor, who put out a bizarre statement criticising Mr Biden and the journalists taking part.

“How come Biden picks a reporter off a list, in all cases softball questions, and then reads the answer? I would never have been allowed to get away with that, nor would I have to!” said the statement tweeted out by Mr Trump’s chief spokesperson Liz Harrington.

In his opening remarks, the president pointed to the more than 210 million Americans who are vaccinated against Covid-19, and the delivery of hundreds of million of shots from this point last year.

He also admitted that the White House should have increased the country’s testing capability, as at-home testing kits are being sent out to millions of Americans.

During his first press conference of 2022, Mr Biden chuckled with laughter after Peter Doocy of Fox News asked him why he was trying to “pull the country so far to the left?”

“Well, I’m not ... I’m not Bernie Sanders, I’m not a socialist, I’m a mainstream Democrat,” replied Mr Biden.

The president also shrugged off a question from James Rosen of right-wing network Newsmax, who asked him about his mental fitness.

Mr Biden took a shot at Republican lawmakers, and said he did not know what they even stood for anymore.

“I don’t know what their agenda is now. What is it? The American public is outraged about the tax structure we have in America. What are they proposing to do about it? Have you heard anything?”

Mr Biden’s press conference of one hour and 54 minutes topped the longest ever given by Mr Trump, which was one hour and 26 minutes.