Considering the huge build-up to the campaign itself, President Biden’s interview with ABC was a failure that changed no one’s mind about his ability to serve another four years.
Biden was gruff and low-energy on George Stephanopoulos, losing his train of thought or interrupting himself several times, insisting he wasn’t weak, dismissing polls he didn’t like and appearing to deny the importance of the crisis he faced. severity. He’s better than Disastrous Debate, but that’s a pretty low bar.
I find it baffling that Biden spent more than a week doing nothing but rally speeches. He should have given six interviews – not just one – to demonstrate his mental acuity.
But then it occurred to me that his inner circle didn’t think he could do it. Conducting multiple interviews was such an obvious move that the White House hid Biden’s illness from many of its own officials and residence staff, and would have given him interviews had there been more confidence in his ability to avoid missteps.
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President Biden walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Sunday, July 7, after returning from Pennsylvania. (AP/Susan Walsh)
So yesterday, the president turned on his favorite show, “Morning Joe.” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough speaks to Biden regularly, including in the last week or so, and is his loudest defender on television. While Scarborough said after the debate defeat that Biden should consider stepping down, he has really gone on the defensive since then.
Scarborough asked Biden if he thought Democrats were doing the same thing as Trump in 2020, trying to overturn polls of Democratic voters.
“I’ve been traveling across the country a lot when Trump is riding his golf cart, and the reason is… I’ve been all over the country, number one, I’ve been all over the country several times, one of the reasons is to make sure that my gut is correct and the party still wants me to be the nominee,” Biden responded.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on June 28 at Greenbrier Farm in Chesapeake, Virginia. (Anna Chanmemaker/Getty Images)
To her credit, co-host Mika Brzezinski angered many of the critics who wanted the president removed.
“The New York Times editorial board, The Economist, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe. Jerry Nadler, Seth Moulton. Let me go visit Julian Kass Trow, Tim Ryan, David Axelrod—”
“You’re kidding me,” said Biden, who has been angry with the former Obama-Biden White House official since advising him not to run again last fall.
“David Remnick, Richard Haas…Zeke Emanuel…those are pretty big names.”
Biden’s response: “I don’t care what the big guys think. They were wrong in 2020. They were wrong about the red wave in 2022. They were wrong in 2024.”
In a final rant: “I’m very frustrated with the elites. Now, I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about the elites within the party, who know better. If any of these people don’t think I should run , fight against me.
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Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, said Biden is well-positioned to compete with “the media elite, the New York Times editorial page, billionaire donors … Hollywood tycoons.”
With all due respect, Biden is the pillar of the Washington establishment least able to demonstrate this. Served in Senate for thirty-six years. Eight are vice presidents. Almost four presidents. He worked with many Democrats to pass major legislation, sometimes with bipartisan support. They love this guy. These are his people. They just think Trump will beat him.
If you need further evidence that Biden’s team doesn’t trust him, look at the president’s two interviews with black radio stations in Pennsylvania last week — routine for any candidate.
The White House asked a series of questions in advance and then argued that was standard practice and not a condition of the interview. No, this is an unethical act.
President Biden gave a high-stakes interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos after a rally in Madison, Wisconsin. (Getty Images)
Andrea Lawful-Sanders, who interviewed Biden on WURD-FM, admitted on CNN that she used four of those pre-questions, and the network has now fired her.
WURD CEO Sara Lomax said using predetermined questions “violates our responsibility to our audiences as an independent media organization… WURD is not a spokesperson for Biden or any other administration.”
Milwaukee WMCS host Earl Ingram also admitted to using the same four White House questions. The government has now said it will no longer issue advisory questions.
But even though Biden knew what was coming, he still botched the legitimate Sanders interview. He said he was proud to be “the first black woman to serve with a black president.” ah?
When Biden hosted a NATO summit in Washington this week, he promised to hold a separate news conference that would be a good test of his agility in answering aggressive questions, but should have already been done.
Meanwhile, while some major donors have said they will not give another dime to Democrats if Biden goes on to win the nomination, the new information highlights a lack of candor from the administration.
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White House physician Kevin O’Connor, who declined to be interviewed, has had Parkinson’s experts meet with medical liaisons 10 times starting in 2022, most recently in March. The role of neurologist Kevin Cannard has not previously been revealed. The White House issued a statement not denying that several experts from Walter Reed visited the White House.
Biden has repeatedly refused to undergo neurological exams.
Look, as someone who has covered him since the 1980s, when he loved talking to reporters, I can tell you that Biden has wanted to be president all his adult life. He has been written off many times. It is highly unlikely that he would give up the job now. If that’s the case, 99% of the delegates are committed to him, and no one can take that away from him.
Some media liberals and Democrats are talking about a “blitz primary” to see who will show up at the Chicago convention, or for Biden to resign and hand the presidency to Kamala Harris, but without Biden’s With acquiescence, none of this will happen.
Democratic strategist Julian Epstein said a potential Harris administration is a murky topic because she has shown no “core belief in anything.” (Kevin Dickey/Getty Images)
Now let’s talk about the role of media.
There is no doubt that the media has failed miserably to see through the White House cover-up of the president’s true condition. Maybe they could have been more aggressive. Perhaps they were put off by the White House’s backlash against those concerned about the 81-year-old president’s age, an issue that has been in the news for months.
We can all see Biden’s decline on television, as he speaks haltingly, stammeringly and sometimes incoherently. If you look back at Biden in 2020 or 2021, the difference is obvious.
When the Wall Street Journal reported a month ago that “behind closed doors, Biden seen as slipping,” the report was widely condemned, including by the “Morning Joe” panel. Now, other outlets, from The New York Times to CNN’s Carl Bernstein, are reporting even more damaging stories.
In Sunday’s “Media Buzz,” Molly Hemingway and Ben Shapiro argued that it was an open secret that reporters deliberately covered the president. Molly said the White House press corps should resign en masse.
But in the following segment, I asked Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich how much of Biden she saw on the road, and she said “not at all.”
The only exceptions, she said, were the increasingly rare loud questions and the occasional laugh.
Karine Jean-Pierre was hammered yesterday for not disclosing a visit from a Parkinson’s disease expert, but she said she was legally prohibited from confirming any names for security reasons, according to White House logs.
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I know Biden better than anyone at Fox, but I have zero access to the president or his inner circle — and that doesn’t stop me from talking about the clear decline we’re witnessing on television. There is no doubt that the overwhelmingly negative coverage of Trump, which most journalists view as a threat to democracy, is a factor.
But the idea that reporters are sitting on such secrets negates how a candidate who wouldn’t even grant a Super Bowl interview was wrapped up in a bubble and isolated by his longtime agent.
