Members of the media and prominent Democrats are calling on President Biden to do more interviews and press conferences following the disastrous CNN debate.
Members of the media and prominent Democrats are calling on President Biden to engage more with the press following a disastrous debate performance that left many worried about the president’s chances of beating Donald Trump in the fall.
„The only way for him and the campaign to respond is not by talking to senators or governors, because this is not a tell me situation. It’s a show me situation. So he’d have to be out and about in the hurly-burly of a campaign, open-ended press conferences with folks like you, engagements with voters that are unscripted“, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told CNN on Wednesday. „I do think that the response here would have to involve being very much in the public in an unscripted situation, as opposed to a few interviews or conversations with governors.“
Biden, who has done fewer formal interviews and press conferences than any of his recent predecessors, joined ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to President Bill Clinton, for an interview on Friday. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that Biden also plans to hold a press conference during the upcoming NATO summit.
„An interview at this point would just be a Band-Aid on a giant, gaping bullet hole. This body President Biden is bleeding out, and a single interview is not going to change that. The news in the last couple of hours is just even more damning for him“, former CNN media reporter Brian Stelter said during an interview on the network on Tuesday, prior to the news that Biden would sit down with ABC.
„I think instead of just an interview, think about another debate. Think about a rematch between Trump and Biden. Think about a series of press conferences. Think about a series of town halls that would be a little bit more, I think, in the realm of what might help at this point. But, an interview. It’s a Band-Aid on a bullet hole“, he said, speaking to CNN’s Brianna Keilar.
Keilar questioned whether Biden needed to mirror something like a debate, without a teleprompter „for an extended period of time.“
„And this raises a question about whether he can, in other words, if he could do that, he would do that by now“, Stelter responded. „If he could hold a primetime news conference, he probably would.“
After the ABC interview aired on Friday, ABC correspondent Jon Karl said it did nothing to quell the fears of „jittery Democrats who fear that Joe Biden is on a trajectory to lose this race.
