President Biden had a stark message for the media to meet the “seriousness of the moment” on the heels of his own strained relationship with the press.
At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Biden pleaded with the journalists in the room to take former President Trump’s “attack on democracy” seriously and not dismiss his rhetoric as “just Trump talk.”
“I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides. I’m asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment,” Biden said Saturday. “Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments, and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics, and focus on what’s actually at stake. I think in your hearts, you know what’s at stake. The stakes couldn’t be higher.”
“Every single one of us has roles to play, a serious role to play in making sure democracy endures — American democracy. I know my role but, all due respect, so do you. In the age of disinformation, credible information that people can trust is more important than ever. And that makes you — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — that makes you more important than ever,” Biden added.
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That message was received loud and clear, at least by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, who opened his show on Sunday with a sermon, listing the litany of legal woes facing Trump despite his current lead in the polls and echoing a very similar message to Biden’s.
“Until now, no American presidential race had been more defined by what’s happening in courtrooms than by what’s happening on the campaign trail. The scale of the abnormality is so staggering, that it can actually become numbing. It’s all too easy to fall into reflexive habits, to treat this as a normal campaign, where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power,” Stephanopoulos told viewers. “But, that is not what’s happening this election year. Those bedrock tenants of democracy are being tested in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens.”
Biden’s call for the media to “rise up to the seriousness of the moment” came just one day after his not-so-serious interview with liberal radio talk show host Howard Stern.
Stern, the shock jock who once captured the nation as an anti-establishment media personality, spent much of his interview with Biden singing his praises, even listing off Biden’s accomplishments at one point as the president spoke of various tall tales, like how he handed “salacious pictures” he received from women to the Secret Service as a senator or how he was “arrested standing on the porch with a Black family” as a child.
While Biden sat down with his superfan, his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, sat down with one of her own this week: Drew Barrymore. Barrymore, the actress-turned-daytime talk show host who previously interviewed Biden in December 2022, spoke with Harris on hard-hitting topics like how she became a “Momala” to her husband’s children and her critics’ reaction to how she laughs.
There has been a recent uptick of Biden interviews granted with local news outlets on the campaign trail that don’t often generate major headlines. As far as high-profile interviews on a national platform, he has become quite selective. Some of Biden’s most recent interviewers include “Late Night” host Seth Meyers, his friendly biographer Evan Osnos in The New Yorker, liberal MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart (earning a rare second sit-down with the president), Univision’s Enrique Acevedo, and Hollywood allies and “SmartLess” hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett, who sat down with Biden and former Presidents Clinton and Obama for a joint podcast recording ahead of Biden’s star-studded campaign fundraiser.
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Biden’s interview with Stern was widely seen as a blatant snub to The New York Times, whose feud with the White House reached a boiling point on Thursday with its release of a blistering statement calling the president out for the lack of serious interviews.
“For anyone who understands the role of the free press in a democracy, it should be troubling that President Biden has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term,” the Times began its statement. “The president occupies the most important office in our nation, and the press plays a vital role in providing insights into his thinking and worldview, allowing the public to assess his record and hold him to account.”
“Mr. Biden has granted far fewer press conferences and sit-down interviews with independent journalists than virtually all of his predecessors. It is true that The Times has sought an on-the-record interview with Mr. Biden, as it has done with all presidents going back more than a century. If the president chooses not to sit down with The Times because he dislikes our independent coverage, that is his right, and we will continue to cover him fully and fairly either way,” the Times continued.
“However, in meetings with Vice President Harris and other administration officials, the publisher of The Times focused instead on a higher principle: That systematically avoiding interviews and questions from major news organizations doesn’t just undermine an important norm, it also establishes a dangerous precedent that future presidents can use to avoid scrutiny and accountability. That is why Mr. Sulzberger has repeatedly urged the White House to have the president sit down with The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNN and other major independent news organizations that millions of Americans rely on to understand their government.”
Perhaps the last adversarial interviews Biden faced were with PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff and ABC’s David Muir, who both grilled him about his classified documents scandal back in February 2023.
What followed for the rest of the year was a string of friendly interviews with “The Daily Show” guest host (and former Obama aide) Kal Penn, NBC’s Al Roker, MSNBC’s Joe Scarbourgh, Stephanie Ruhle and Nicolle Wallace, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, British wellness podcast host Jay Shatt, The Weather Channel’s Stephanie Abrams, ProPublica’s John Harwood, CBS correspondent Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes,” Spanish radio host Tony Arias, CNN’s Anderson Cooper on his grief podcast and comedian Conan O’Brien. He also spoke with Roker during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade by phone, as well as Ryan Seacrest during ABC’s New Year’s Eve broadcast, both alongside First Lady Jill Biden.
Earlier this year, Biden skipped the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview with CBS after avoiding it last year with Fox News.
