CNN (“ABC News interview with Biden will now air as a ‘primetime special’ on Friday“):
The ABC News interview with President Joe Biden will now air “in its entirety as a primetime special” on Friday evening at 8:00 P.M. ET/PT, the network announced Wednesday evening.
The high-profile interview will be the first televised interview the president is expected to participate in since his poor showing at last week’s CNN presidential debate.
The first clip will still air on “World News Tonight” on Friday evening.
Biden will be interviewed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on the campaign trail earlier in the day and ABC News says a transcript of the unedited interview will also be made available on Friday.
CNN’s MJ Lee reported earlier on Wednesday that the president privately acknowledged the next stretch of days is critical (including the president’s interview with ABC) to whether he can save his reelection bid, making clear to an ally that he understands what would prompt him to accept: “It’s just not working.” [emphasis mine]
Originally, ABC said it would air parts of Stephanopoulos’ interview with Biden on Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET on “World News Tonight with David Muir.” The extended interview would have aired Sunday on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
At last week’s debate, Biden struggled to complete sentences at times and often looked lost as former President Donald Trump pumped out falsehoods, urgently raising questions about Biden’s age and ability to serve a second term.
This is a bold but perhaps necessary gambit on the part of the President. Stephanopoulos is a sympathetic interviewer. He was, after all, Communications Director and then Senior Advisor to President Clinton and obviously prefers Biden to Trump. But he’s been a professional journalist now for more than a quarter century and will be under pressure to ask tough questions.
Given the catastrophic performance in the debate, Biden will be under enormous pressure to perform well. And, frankly, even a good showing is unlikely to do the damage from the debate.
I don’t know who the source is for the passage I highlighted above but the pressure is higher than I thought if Biden himself thinks he needs to “save his reelection bid” and is seriously contemplating leaving the race if he doesn’t quickly right the ship. While there is precedent (Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson) for eligible incumbents to withdraw from reelection bids when all the signs point to their losing, it’s never happened this late in the contest.
I do find it a bit odd that Biden agreed to a high-stakes interview and agreed to let one network use it in this fashion. Why not insist on a live interview rather than having the juicy bits released during the evening news and then have the whole thing tape-delayed into prime time? That just screams “old man can’t stay up past his bedtime.”
UPDATE: The Daily Beast (“Biden’s Interview With Stephanopoulos Could Be Over in Just 15 Minutes“) offers a twist:
Joe Biden’s “extended” interview with George Stephanopolous, intended to jumpstart a comeback for the embattled president, will last as little as 15 minutes, the Daily Beast has learned.
[…]
But The Daily Beast has learned that behind the scenes there is deep concern inside ABC News’ upper echelons that Stephanopolous could get as little as 15 minutes to conduct what should be a searching interview offering insight into the president’s mental state.
ABC News earlier declined to comment on the length of the interview. The Biden campaign denied the suggestion when questioned by The Daily Beast, while a White House spokesperson said it was “False. The interview will be longer.”
While there is no agreement between ABC News and the White House on exactly how long Biden spends with the veteran interviewer, the logistics of conducting it during campaign stops could limit it severely. Senior network figures were involved in calls Wednesday to prepare questions for the shortest time in case attempts to speak with the president for longer failed.
One source suggested it would be more in the range of 20 minutes—still a relatively short period of time for even an accomplished interviewer to cover questions both over Biden’s cognitive state and his ability to stay in the campaign.
ABC executives hope that Biden–long known for his loquaciousness–will simply give them more time once they are on the ground. They are likely to be calculating that it is in Biden’s interests to show he is sharp, alert and able to deal with questions and therefore that he will keep the interview going. The length of the interview itself will be closely watched by those wondering about Biden’s state, while its depth and substance will be a critical test for the president. He told donors Wednesday that he was “clear eyed” and in the race to win, despite mounting calls for him to quit.
The brief nature of the interview came despite reports, including by the Associated Press, describing it as an “extended” encounter between the two men. Biden had conducted few in-depth interviews even before last Thursday’s disastrous debate. The Associated Press reported that he has given 36 news conferences since taking office, fewer than any since Ronald Reagan at the same point in his presidency. Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project, told the AP that Biden has conducted 128 interviews. At the same point in their presidencies Donald Trump had done 369 and Barack Obama 497.
An interview of as little as 15 or 20 minutes appears unlikely to answer demands from top Democrats that Biden make the case in public for his continued run for a second term. Under normal circumstances, a presidential interview with a major broadcaster of 20 minutes or so would be seen both as a normal level of access for the network, and a major scoop.
It may well be that the prime time scheduling is ABC’s way of forcing Biden’s hand into granting a longer interview. A 15-minute sitdown under these circumstances would likely backfire.
