(The Guardian) It looks as though Joe Biden won’t be doing the traditional presidential pre-Super Bowl TV interview.
There has been much chatter about the annual interview between the US president and the channel airing the Super Bowl. Fox is broadcasting the Super Bowl, so some people had assumed the interview would be with Fox News, likely Brett Baier.
But now the White House press secretary has tweeted that Biden will not be doing an interview – and it looks like it was supposed to be with Fox Soul, a Fox streaming service.
Last night and this morning, various outlets were abuzz with chatter about how the US president had been “ghosting” Fox News, as, if the traditional interview was going ahead they would have been making arrangements ages ago, but were experiencing radio silence. Variety magazine did a story yesterday afternoon, headlined “Fox news believes interview with President Biden won’t take place.”
CNN’s Reliable Sources news letter chimed in, quoting “a source at Fox News” who told the outlet that they had “not heard back on whether Biden will grant it the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview, and that at this point the outlet is proceeding as if it is not going to take place. ‘We don’t have a formal no, but we are operating like it’s not happening’,” the source explained to CNN, which goes on: “Bret Baier first hinted at the possibility of a potential Biden rebuff during State of the Union coverage on Tuesday, telling viewers that Biden had yet to commit to an interview. At the time, he had signaled that he hoped the White House would ultimately agree to a sit-down.
“Biden has sat down for at least two interviews this week, one with PBS NewsHour and another with Telemundo, which would make the possible snub all the more notable. It goes without saying that Biden has had a frosty relationship with Fox News … If Biden were to agree to an interview with Fox News, it would almost certainly be conducted by Baier.”