President Joe Biden's 2024 media strategy seems to revolve around one cardinal rule: avoid adversarial interviews whenever possible.
About three and a half years into his term, the 81-year-old incumbent continues to generally eschew lengthy press conferences, large rallies, and adversarial interviews with traditional media outlets — though he does have an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett scheduled to air Wednesday night.
Instead, he's typically giving shorter speeches and participating in softball interviews with sympathetic celebrities. He's also meeting with voters one-on-one in smaller venues to create interactions that can be neatly clipped for social media.
It's all part of what Biden aides say is a "less is more" media strategy that prioritizes "quality over quantity," removes the "clutter," and helps Biden "get directly to the point."
But the president's critics see something else: a concerted effort by the White House to keep him in controlled environments that lower the risk of verbal slip-ups and negative media coverage in the critical months leading up to Election Day.
"His team lacks confidence in his ability to deliver a cohesive message," says Dave Kochel, a veteran Republican strategist. "And it's funny because they'll constantly signal that they're going to be more aggressive with this or that, and then they don't ever do it. I assume it's because the poll numbers come back and his appearances don't ever seem to move numbers."
"The truth is, they've got a candidate who just doesn't have the performance ability that he used to have," Kochel added. "He's never been great. He's always been a little bit of a gaffe machine. But he's lost more than a step. He's lost multiple steps."
Voters tuning into Biden's recent interviews hoping to hear him answer hard-hitting questions about foreign policy, immigration, or the economy will be out of luck.
Instead, they'll hear lay-up questions from Hollywood stars whose conversations. . .
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