Biden set to SHUN national media and do even fewer major interviews during ... trends now
President Joe Biden is set to shun the national media and do even fewer major interviews during the 2024 campaign, instead booking sit-downs with local news outlets and 'influencers' instead.
The Hill reported Thursday on the strategy, with aides noting that it was deployed in 2020 as well, and helped him win the White House over now former President Donald Trump.
One longtime aide told the newspaper that by focusing on local outlets, 'You get more bang for your buck.'
And the gaffe-prone president enjoys talking about local issues instead of the news-of-the-day questions and queries about his poll numbers that he gets from the national press, the report said.
'It's always helpful when the president can speak to a community specifically about his accomplishments without all the noise,' the aide said. 'It's more effective … than sitting down with a network, where many of the voters are already going to vote for you anyway.'
President Joe Biden is set to shun the national media, instead booking sit-downs with local news outlets and 'influencers.' The Biden campaign released a photo of the president taping the SmartLess podcast on Thursday during his trip to New York City
Comedians Jason Bateman (left), Will Arnett (third from left) and Sean Hayes (second from right) taped an interview of their SmartLess podcast Thursday with President Joe Biden (third from right), former Presidents Barack Obama (second from left) and Bill Clinton (right)
President Joe Biden (left) arrives in New York City Thursday with former President Barack Obama (right) in tow. The two will be joined by former President Bill Clinton for a podcast interview with three Hollywood comedians - in lieu of a traditional broadcast or print Q&A
During his first three years in office, Biden lagged way behind Trump in giving interviews.
As of January 20 of this year he sat down with reporters 86 times, compared to Trump's 300, according to data compiled by Martha Kumar, an emeritus political science professor at Towson University, who studies White House communications.
More recently, Biden taped an interview with MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart during a trip to Atlanta, Georgia earlier this month, which was part of an opening two-day campaign trail swing, as he officially became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
That came after passing on the traditional presidential Super Bowl interview, which would have been with CBS, the network broadcasting the game.
After his sit-down with Capehart, Biden spoke to two
