Politico White House Reporter Criticizes Biden for Dodging Press While Granting Softball Celebrity Interviews
(Biden for President via @libbycathey on X)
Politico White House reporter Jennifer Haberkorn was unimpressed by the Biden campaign’s show of celebrity force immediately preceding and at a lavish New York City fundraiser on Thursday.
Haberkorn expressed her frustration while reacting to a report that President Joe Biden, as well as former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, sat down for an interview ahead of the fundraiser with the SmartLess podcast, which is hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes.
“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,” she mused on X.
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
A number of other celebrities, including Stephen Colbert and Lizzo, participated in Biden’s fundraiser on Thursday.
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.
Biden has faced criticism for his reticence to submit to serious interviews with journalists, even skipping the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview presidents typically jump at in favor of a fawning, cupcake sit-down with Colbert shortly afterward.
An October 2023 Washington Post piece observed that “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 Donald Trump era” and noted that Biden had only “granted a sit-down interview to one daily newsprint journalist, the Associated Press’s Josh Boak,” up to that point in his White House tenure. He has, in the time since, submitted to more interviews with print reporters.
Biden previously appeared on the SmartLess podcast in November 2022.
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