Biden congratulates Matthews on becoming Club president

President Joe Biden congratulated Lisa Nicole Matthews on becoming National Press Club president, the first time in five years that the nation’s chief executive has extended well wishes to the Club’s leader.

“I am confident you will lead with integrity, promote fact over fiction, and work tirelessly as part of the institution’s all-female leadership team, to keep The National Press Club strong and vibrant during these challenging times,” Biden wrote in a Jan. 30 letter (embedded below). “I am encouraged by your commitment to increase the diversity and inclusiveness among members and in turn, to help bring our fellow Americans closer together.”

Matthews, who received the letter just before being sworn into office on Jan. 30, wrote the following response as a letter to Club members:

Greetings Fellow Members,

Most of us will be focused on the Super Bowl this Sunday and since the Washington Football Team won’t be there, I’ll be rooting for the Chiefs. Besides the game itself, I also look forward to the singing of the National Anthem. This makes me recall the Star-Spangled Banner moment I had last weekend -- right before my Inaugural. If you like, please share it with your friends and colleagues.

I was about to give one of the most important speeches of my life last Saturday, as I addressed you at my Inauguration as 114th President of the National Press Club. Moments before I received a letter from Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States of America. It’s not every day that you receive a letter from the president. It was a letter of congratulations. It was warm in its tone - just the kind of thing you might expect from President Biden. But for me, there was more to this letter than a friendly President to President congratulation.

Mind you, the receipt of a letter from the president is not something new for presidents of the National Press Club. Heck, President Obama once sent a video and President Reagan came over with his wife Nancy to recognize our first woman President, Vivian Vahlberg. Reagan even spoke and stayed for dinner and dancing. But my four predecessors, President Jeff Ballou 2017, President Andrea Edney 2018, President Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak 2019, and President Mike Freedman 2020 received no such congratulations or warm wishes; rather, the former President scorned the press, calling us enemies of the people and challenging our role in a democracy and fact-based journalism.

To hold in my hand a letter from the President offering congratulations to me and urging me on to great things at the institution of the Press Club was full of meaning for me. In that letter, I could see what America and all its ideals has held. Despite an attack on our Capitol and years of attack on Democracy I could look at this letter and see a symbol -- the way Francis Scott Key saw our American flag whipping in the wind over Fort McHenry so many years ago. America, and the role the free and independent press plays in supporting the democracy that makes our country possible, is roaring back. And America will endure. Thank you, Mr. President, for this letter. It was well received. Next, we hope you will come for a visit when it is safe to do so.