President Biden’s ABC interview, though heavily promoted by the campaign itself, failed to change anyone’s mind about whether he can serve another four years in office.
Biden sounded raspy and listless in his interview with George Stephanopoulos, stuttering and pausing several times, insisting he wasn’t infirm, denying polls he didn’t like and appearing to be in denial about the seriousness of the crisis he faces. He was better than the disastrous debate, but that’s a pretty low bar.
I don’t understand why Biden has only been speaking at rallies for over a week. He should be doing half a dozen interviews instead of one to demonstrate his mental acuity.
But then I realized Biden’s aides didn’t think he could do that — multiple interviews would be such an obvious move that the White House kept Biden’s condition hidden from many administration and Mansion staff, but if they had more confidence in his ability to stay above missteps, they would put him out there.
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President Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington upon returning from a trip to Pennsylvania on Sunday, July 7. (AP/Susan Walsh)
So yesterday, the president appeared on his favorite show, Morning Joe. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who regularly talks to Biden, including over the past week or so, has been Biden’s most vocal defender on television. After the debate fiasco, Scarborough said Biden should consider stepping down, but he has since vigorously defended him.
Scarborough asked Biden whether he thought Democrats were trying to do the same thing Trump did in 2020 and subvert the will of the Democratic voter.
“The reason I was traveling around the country so much while Mr. Trump was riding around in a golf cart… Number one, I was traveling around the country for a couple of reasons. Number one, to confirm that my instincts were correct that the party still wanted me to be its nominee,” Biden responded.
Former President Donald Trump spoke at a campaign rally at Greenbriar Farm in Chesapeake, Virginia on June 28. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Co-host Mika Brzezinski deserves praise for listing off the many critics who have called for the president to step down.
“The editorial board of the New York Times, The Economist, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe. Jerry Nadler, Seth Moulton. Next up we have Julian Castro, Tim Ryan, David Axelrod.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Biden, who has been angry with the former Obama-Biden White House official since he suggested last fall that Biden not run again.
“David Remnick, Richard Haas … Zeke Emanuel … these are some pretty big names.”
Biden’s response: “I don’t care what the bigwigs think. They were wrong in 2020. They were wrong about the red wave in 2022. They’ll be wrong in 2024.”
And finally, he ranted: “I’m so frustrated with the elites. I’m not talking to you guys, I’m talking to the elites in the party who know way more than they do. If any of these people think I shouldn’t run, I want them to run against me.”
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Scarborough, the former Republican congressman, said Biden is well-positioned to take on “media elites, New York Times editorials, billionaire donors and Hollywood bigwigs.”
With all due respect to all involved, Biden is a pillar of the Washington establishment and the person who can least claim it. Thirty-six years as a Senator, eight as Vice President, and almost four as President. Biden worked with many Democrats, sometimes with bipartisan support, to get important legislation through. They love Biden. They are his supporters. They just think Trump is going to beat him.
If you needed further evidence that the Biden campaign doesn’t trust him, look no further than the two interviews the president gave to black radio stations in Pennsylvania last week, entirely routine for any candidate.
The White House sent out a slew of questions in advance, then claimed afterward that this was standard practice and not a condition of the interview. No, it’s an ethical violation.
President Biden sat down for a pivotal ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos following a rally in Madison, Wisconsin. (Getty Images)
Andrea Lawfull Sanders, who interviewed Biden for WURD-FM, admitted to using four of CNN’s prepared questions, after which the network fired her.
WURD CEO Sarah Lomax said using pre-determined questions “contradicts our practice of remaining an independent media outlet accountable to our listeners…WURD does not speak for the Biden administration or any other administration.”
Earl Ingram, a host on WMCS in Milwaukee, also acknowledged using the same four questions from the White House, though the administration has now said it will no longer send out suggested questions.
But even knowing what was coming, Biden still trashed Lawful Sanders’ interview, saying he was proud to be “the first black woman to work with a black president.” Huh?
Biden has promised to hold a solo news conference while hosting a NATO summit in Washington this week, which will be a good test of his dexterity in answering aggressive questions but should already be happening.
Meanwhile, some major donors have said they won’t give another cent to Democrats if Biden remains the nominee, but new information highlights the administration’s lack of integrity.
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White House physician Kevin O’Connor, who declined to be interviewed, arranged for Parkinson’s disease specialists and medical liaisons to meet 10 times between 2022 and March of this year. The role of neurologist Kevin Canard was not disclosed until now. The White House did not deny the allegations, saying various specialists from Walter Reed Hospital had visited the White House.
Biden has repeatedly refused to undergo a neurological exam.
As someone who has covered Biden since the 1980s, when he enjoyed talking to reporters, I can say that Biden has wanted to be president for his entire adult life. He has been passed over so many times. It is highly unlikely that he would give up the presidency now. And even if he did, no one can take it away from him, with 99% of the delegates pledged to vote for him.
Some liberals in the media and Democrats have talked about a “lightning primary” to see who would win the Chicago convention, or Biden stepping down and handing the presidency to Kamala Harris, but neither of these would happen without Biden’s consent.
Democratic strategist Julian Epstein said the possibility of a Harris administration was an unclear issue because she had not demonstrated “any core beliefs on anything.” (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Now, the role of the media.
There is no question that the media spectacularly failed to expose the White House cover-up about the president’s true condition. They could have been more proactive. They may have been deterred by the strong White House backlash against those who, after months of reporting, focused on the 81-year-old president’s age.
We all saw Biden’s decline on television — his mumbling, stumbling and occasional incoherence — but looking back at Biden in 2020 and 2021, the difference is stark.
When The Wall Street Journal reported a month ago that “behind closed doors, Biden’s momentum appears to be waning,” the story was widely condemned, including by the “Morning Joe” panel. Now other outlets, from the New York Times to CNN’s Carl Bernstein, have published even more damaging stories.
On Sunday’s “Media Buzz,” Molly Hemingway and Ben Shapiro argued that this was an open secret and that journalists were knowingly covering for the president. Molly said the entire White House press corps should resign.
But in the next segment, when asked by Fox senior White House correspondent Jackie Heinrich if she was watching how much Biden was out and about, she replied, “None at all.”
The only exceptions, she said, were increasingly rare shouted questions and occasional bouts of group commotion.
Karine Jean-Pierre was grilled yesterday for not disclosing details of her visits to Parkinson’s disease specialists, but said she was prohibited by law from revealing their names for security reasons, according to a White House transcript.
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I know Biden better than anyone at Fox, but I don’t know the president or any of his aides. But that hasn’t stopped me from talking about the glaring decline we’ve all witnessed on television, and no doubt the overwhelmingly negative coverage of Trump, who most journalists see as a danger to democracy, is a factor.
But the idea that journalists were hiding these secrets belies how insulated and isolated a candidate who never even gave a Super Bowl interview was by his longtime entourage.
