It has been nearly five months since President Biden has been asked any questions in an interview setting about the growing corruption allegations plaguing him and his family as the White House has only granted what critics have called "friendly" sit-downs..
Biden, who has set unprecedented records for how few interviews and solo press conferences he has had among presidents in recent memory, sat down on Friday with ex-CNN White House correspondent John Harwood for an interview that was published Sunday on the liberal news site ProPublica.
The 20-minute sit-down largely focused on "threats to democracy," a theme of Biden's recent speech. There was just one mention of the legal woes facing his son Hunter and the impeachment inquiry launched by House Republicans, but it was framed in a question knocking the GOP's "ability to govern" under Speaker Kevin McCarthy's leadership.
"Speaker McCarthy has advanced an impeachment inquiry on the basis of innuendo about your son, but not evidence of wrongdoing by you. He's done that partly to try to keep his job, partly to try to persuade some of his most extreme members not to shut the government down," the left-wing reporter said. "What does that say about the current Republican Party's ability to govern in our constitutional democracy?"
NY TIMES REPORTER HITS BIDEN FOR ONLY GRANTING INTERVIEWS WITH 'FRIENDLY TALK SHOW HOSTS'
DePauw University professor Jeffrey McCall believes it’s "clear that President Biden's handlers are actively protecting the president from the media, and by extension, from the American citizenry," with the Harwood conversation being the latest example.
"There are reasons for this protection of the president, of course, because he is prone to gaffes and statements that need to be cleaned up afterward by White House staffers. Nobody can know what tangent Biden might take or what off-the-wall remark he might make in any interview. Further, doing lengthy interviews takes preparation and can be taxing, burdens the president might be ill-prepared to handle these days," McCall told Fox News Digital.
"The list of Biden interviews in 2023 includes a lot of soft arenas. Many of the interviews aren't even with journalists. And of the journalistic outlets represented, many would be considered sympathetic to the Biden administration, such as CNN, MSNBC and PBS," McCall continued. "It would behoove Biden to expand the range of outlets for his interviews to more broadly reach the American people."
Back in February, Biden sat down with PBS' Judy Woodruff and ABC's David Muir, both of whom pressed him at the time about his classified documents scandal. However, the last time Biden was asked about any scandal in such a setting was May 5 when MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle sympathetically said to the president, "There's something personal that’s affecting you. Your son, while there's no ties to you, could be charged by your Department of Justice. How would that impact your presidency?"
Since then, in interviews with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace in June, CNN's Fareed Zakaria and British wellness podcast host Jay Shatty in July, The Weather Channel's Stephanie Abrams in August and Harwood's sit-down on Friday, Biden did not face any questions about Hunter's federal charges, the money trails between various foreign entities and several members of the Biden family uncovered by House Republicans and the IRS whistleblower allegations of misconduct in the DOJ's handling of the Hunter Biden probe.
Harwood kicked off his own interview by admitting "how wrong" he was to doubt that Biden could win the 2020 election. Following a litany of non-challenging questions that widely resulted in criticizing Republicans and other conservatives, Biden thanked Harwood for having him and added, "Quite frankly, I'd like to do more of it with you."
Just days before ProPublica released its Biden sit-down, New York Times reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs took a swipe at how selective the White House is when it comes to granting interviews with the president.
"They pretty much made it clear that I don't think they - they see that they may be meeting that standard by putting the president up for interviews with, I would say, friendly talk show hosts and maybe getting their message out on social media," Kanno-Youngs said at last month's Texas Tribune Festival.
The White House rejected the notion that Biden only speaks with "friendly" interviewers as false in response to Fox News Digital.
Harwood, who was forced out of CNN last year among other high-profile liberals when the network briefly attempted to appear nonpartisan, has a long history of openly bashing Republicans despite being billed as a journalist. He memorably gushed over Biden on his inauguration day as representing "truth" and "knowledge."
While at CNBC, Harwood drew sharp criticism for the overtly biased questions he asked while moderating a GOP primary debate in 2015, leading the RNC to ban NBC from hosting more debates during that election cycle. In the DNC emails published by WikiLeaks in 2016, Harwood's coziness with longtime Clinton confidant John Podesta was exposed with one email exchange showing Harwood asking him what he should ask then-GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush in an upcoming interview.
Before exiting CNN, Harwood ran cover for Biden, declaring in March 2022 there was "zero evidence" that the president "has done anything wrong in connection with what Hunter Biden has done."
Over the past several months, Biden has been engulfed in numerous controversies that he has not been pressed on in an interview setting. He was never asked about the cocaine that was found in the White House, the revelations about his dog Commander repeatedly biting Secret Service agents nor his sudden acknowledgment of his seventh grandchild after denying her existence for years.
More recently, Biden was slammed for repeating the debunked lie that he almost lost his wife, cat and 1967 Corvette to a house fire in 2004 while speaking to survivors of the Maui wildfires and addressing Hurricane Idalia in an attempt to relate to people's struggles. He was criticized for his inconsistent mask-wearing as the first lady recovered from COVID and for abruptly leaving a Medal of Honor ceremony early. Biden also raised eyebrows during his overseas trip for comments he made at his Hanoi press conference, which ended with White House staff playing him off to music as he was responding to reporters.
In addition, Biden faced backlash for falsely claiming he was at Ground Zero the day after 9/11, and releasing $6 billion to Iran, the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism, in exchange for five American prisoners, announced on the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. And last week, Biden botched LL Cool J's name, calling him "LL J Cool J" and referring to the 55-year-old iconic rapper as "boy."
While various controversies have emerged and evaporated from the ever-evolving news cycle, Biden's biggest headaches are long-term, including questions the public has about his viability, his son's legal woes and his own classified documents investigation, in addition to the GOP impeachment inquiry.
McCall feels that the risks of sitting down for a tough interview outweigh the rewards in the eyes of Biden’s public relations team.
"They would rather keep him in friendly circles, which makes sense on one level, but does suggest rhetorically that he can't handle rigorous and challenging interviews in front of enterprising journalists. That scared approach just feeds a growing narrative that the president is too fragile to step into a hot kitchen," McCall said.
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