Looks like President Joe Biden is finally being pushed into the interview ring after last week’s cringeworthy debate performance against former President Donald Trump. It’s taken criticism from all political corners — yes, even from his own party — to shove Biden into an interview, and it’s about time.
Biden, who clearly struggled to keep up during the debate, now has to show he can muddle through a conversation without a teleprompter. The Democrats, in damage control mode, have arranged for what they hope will be the most forgiving setup possible: a taped interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. For those who don’t remember, Stephanopoulos isn’t exactly known for hard-hitting right-wing questioning, given his history as a Clinton White House insider.
Despite the kid-glove treatment they’re hoping for, Biden’s team has to be sweating bullets. The Democrats have started to realize — or pretend to realize for show — that Biden’s been bluffing about his fitness to serve. His handlers are crossing their fingers that Stephanopoulos doesn’t join the growing chorus within their own ranks who are hinting that maybe, just maybe, ol’ Joe should drop out for the sake of the party.
Town Hall: Biden Books First Post-Debate Interview Under Pressure to Prove Fitness https://t.co/H6aLb2ieEB
— Ian Hansen 🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@IanHansenFeed) July 2, 2024
This gamble is still a risky one for the Biden camp. They’re betting that the final edited version of the interview can make Biden look somewhat competent. His previous publicly released videos have been a joke, riddled with jump-cuts that make viewers wonder how many times he messed up before they got something they could use. If this ABC interview follows the same pattern, it’ll be like a comedy sketch, confirming our suspicions that Biden can’t even string a few coherent sentences together without a script.
ABC would do itself and the American public a favor by releasing a full transcript of the interview. This would shed light on just how much editing magic went into making Biden look presentable. After all, the stark difference between the bumbling Joe Biden who showed up at the debate and the supposedly sharp Joe Biden his aides keep talking about behind closed doors is getting hard for even Democrats to ignore. The calls for transparency are getting louder, and it’s not just coming from the right.