Biden’s Comeback Interview Backfires

The writer is in the U.S.

Nine days have passed since Thursday June 27th, when President Joe Biden showed an alarming level of senility in his debate with former President Donald Trump. The Democratic damage control began immediately.

After each of our Presidential debates, we engage in a charade known as the spin room. Picture a hotel ballroom with booths around the sides. In the middle are reporters who must get quotes for their stories. Conveniently arrayed in the booths are Democratic and Republican luminaries, there to provide the requisite quotes that keep editors happy. The spin room is not usually a happy place for seekers of truth.

Except on June 27th and then entirely by accident.

On that night, the Republican luminaries took their appointed places in the booths, but the Democratic luminaries did not. President Joe Biden had performed so poorly that the Democrats couldn’t figure out how to spin their way out of it. They had to get their stories straight, but the empty booths told the tale for them. Unfortunately for Biden’s spin team, the scene was captured on live television.

For U.K. readers, “spin” is the term we colonists use for “lie”.

The ensuing week saw more flip-flops than our Olympic gymnastics trials.

The Democrats split into two factions: those who wanted their party to win and the hated orange man to lose; and those who were members of Joe Biden’s family, paid administration or campaign officials. The latter group also wanted their party to win and the hated orange man to lose, but absolutely not at the expense of losing their coveted positions of prestige and power. They had to try to prop him up.

As talk began of replacing Biden at the top of the ticket, the Republicans became staunch defenders of democracy. They probably got thousands of “Save Our Democracy” placards at a steep discount when the sentiment became inconvenient for the other party which had ordered them. The Republicans argued that “millions of voters had chosen Biden as their standard bearer, and it would be undemocratic to unhorse him”. So deeply were tongues stuffed into cheeks that they looked like hideous facial growths in serious need of dermatological attention. In truth, the Republicans simply wanted the easiest opponent possible, and that was Joe Biden.

Part way through the week, along came another swirling undercurrent. The reporters covering the Biden administration were not having their suspicions confirmed about his mental infirmity at the debate like the rest of us were. They already knew and had likely known for some time. America’s most prominent television and print news sources had covered it up, and they began a frenzy of uncovering it after it was no longer deniable, likely to avoid or diffuse blame for years of abject journalistic failure.

That pretty much brought us to Friday evening, July 5th. After carefully avoiding interviews with even friendly reporters, the White House realised that some serious damage control was required. It scheduled a one-on-one interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News.

This was delicate. Biden’s people could not choose a reporter who would overtly make the President look good by asking soft cuddly questions. Nor could they choose one who would arrive on set with hatchet in hand. The interview had to be credible to have any chance of changing frenzied minds. To my eye, Stephanopoulos, a former Senior Policy Advisor and Press Secretary to President Clinton, met the test by asking the right questions politely and respectfully, but also persistently. Of course, he will now have to face the wrath of the Twitter/X mob.

Biden did better in the interview than in the debate, but, by any measure, he still did poorly. His speech was halting and weak. Both his reasoning and his delivery were shaky. Think how you feel when your Mum says, “it’s your turn to sit and talk with grandpa” before Christmas dinner.

Biden declared that only “the Lord Almighty” can tell him to stand down, and blamed his poor debate performance on a “really bad cold”.

In November, we re-elect all 435 members of our House of Representatives, one third of our 100-member Senate and 11 Governors. Democrats contesting these elections are frantic their diminished Presidential candidate will sink them all. The knives are out, but everyone involved is still hoping someone else will do the stabbing.

The Stephanopoulos interview didn’t work, and more polls are being completed daily. It is difficult to see how President Biden’s supporters spin their way out of this one.

Haven Pell, a.k.a. the Pundificator, has lived in Washington D.C. for 45 years, though he has never worked in any governmental or government relations capacity. His writing can be found on Substack. Pundificator is a mashup of two loathsome words: pundit and pontificator.