Biden bubble: How first lady Jill and staff 'protect' president from White House press

Three years into Joe Biden’s presidency, reporters who cover the administration know what to expect when first lady Jill Biden appears: nothing.

The president, 81, has held the fewest press conferences or formal interviews of any modern commander-in-chief — leaving Biden’s jaunts across the White House South Lawn to and from his Marine One helicopter as the best chance for the press corps to get some face time.

When Biden is alone, he is far easier to bait with shouted questions, sometimes shuffling over around midnight for a give-and-take — despite the unflattering overhead TV lights forcing him to hold up his hand to shield his eyes from the glare.

However, the presence of Jill, 72, on such trips is a dead giveaway that there will be no questions, with the first lady making sure to hold her husband’s hand the entire way across the lawn.

JILL BIDEN DEFENDS PRESIDENT FROM DIRECT QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS HEALTH, AGE: 'HE'S LIVED HISTORY'

Jill Biden’s role in shielding her husband from members of the media has come under new scrutiny after special counsel Robert Hur described the president in a report released Thursday as an "elderly man with a poor memory."

Biden has only held three solo White House press conferences since taking office in January 2021. At the most recent, in November 2022, Jill arrived at the last minute and was seated at the very front of the State Dining Room by a beefy aide — who positioned her so that journalists could not see whether the first lady was urging her husband at any point to make a hasty retreat.

Such precautions may have been needed after Biden’s second White House presser in January 2022, a marathon affair in which the president droned on for nearly two hours and made several factual errors and