President Joe Biden has taken some heat for continuing his trend of dodging hard-hitting interviews with the press in favor of softball celebrity interviews.
Ahead of his swanky fundraiser in Manhattan on Thursday, the president did yet another interview with actor Jason Bateman on the Smartless podcast alongside Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Co-hosts Will Arnett and Sean Hayes were also present.
“Number of times Jason Bateman has done a sit-down interview with President Biden: 2. Nearly every print reporter who covers the White House: 0,” Politico White House reporter Jennifer Haberkorn said on X.
According to Mediaite, “Haberkorn’s observation was retweeted by a number of her peers, such as The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg, The New Republic‘s Grace Segers, The Daily Beast’s Corbin Bolies, The Washington Post‘s Annah Aschbrenner, and Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson.”
Number of times Jason Bateman has done a sit-down interview with President Biden: 2
Nearly every print reporter who covers the White House: 0 https://t.co/zjE3PmN1XI— Jennifer Haberkorn (@jenhab) March 29, 2024
From left to right: Jason Bateman, Barack Obama, Will Arnett, Joe Biden, Sean Hayes, Bill Clinton
The three presidents taped an interview for the actors’ @SmartLess podcast ahead of a “record-breaking” fundraiser tonight in NYC
📸 via Biden for President pic.twitter.com/PvJvNvfi1i
— Libby Cathey (@libbycathey) March 28, 2024
The president has earned a reputation for ghosting the White House press corp, routinely yielding the floor to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre while being relatively absent. His press dodging became so problematic that even the Washington Post called him out on it in an article last year.
“In his first two-and-a-half years as president, Biden has held fewer news conferences than his predecessors. He has given fewer interviews to major news organizations, despite his promise to restore traditional press relations after the Trump era,” it noted
“At the same time, the White House is contacting an array of online influencers, social media personalities, TikTok stars and other nontraditional figures to spread its message, creating an alternative communication network that is different from previous presidencies,” it added.
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