Presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is facing increased pressure to take tough questions from reporters as Election Day gets closer, prompting chatter from critics who think the former vice president needs to come out of his basement and talk.
Biden actually took questions in an interview published Monday by Elle magazine, but instead of a journalist the former vice president spoke with rapper Cardi B – who quickly informed him that she despises President Trump.
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“Republicans can finally stop complaining that Joe Biden is hiding from hard-hitting interviews,” Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavey joked.
Pundit Stephen Miller wrote, “Joe Biden gave an interview to Cardi B before he gave one to Chris Wallace or Jonathan Swan and they will all sit there and take it.”
It doesn’t appear that Biden’s chat with Cardi B is going to slow down the growing calls for the former vice president to take questions from actual journalists.
“The Biden campaign screams about transparency, and about honesty, yet it conducts itself in the opposite manner in terms of not doing interviews. We’ve never seen a campaign like this before,” The Hill media reporter Joe Concha said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”
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Concha then asked, “If the Biden campaign won’t take questions from the press, how do we expect them exactly to stand up to China or Russia?”
Biden has been widely criticized for weeks for refusing to sit down with reporters for unscripted interviews, but the campaign’s decision to largely skip Sunday morning political programs on the eve of the Democratic National Convention has put the strategy in a larger spotlight.
According to Washington Examiner, Trump has taken 635 questions from reporters in the past month, with Biden fielding just 80 in comparison.
“Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace — who was widely praised for his recent tough questioning of President Trump — is among the critics who are baffled by the lack of transparency.
Wallace recently spoke with Fox News Radio's Guy Benson and explained that he’s been hosting Sunday shows prior to conventions for over 30 years and has never seen a campaign decline to at least send top aides to lay out the candidate’s agenda.
“They're not putting anybody out on any of the Sunday shows point,” Wallace said. “I don't understand what's going on here. This is the damnedest thing I've ever seen.”
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Wallace said Biden has continued his “basement strategy,” but the veteran anchor doesn’t think it can go on for much longer.
“I don't think you can hide from now until Election Day. I just don't think it's possible,” Wallace said.
Former Ohio Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro said Monday on Fox News that a narrative is “catching fire” that Biden is afraid to go in front of the camera.
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“He’s going to have to address that,” Cafaro said. “He has an obligation to stand before the American people and answer the tough questions.”
Biden has managed to avoid taking questions from reporters for so long that even his most liberal allies in the press have taken notice.
“Reporters are rightly calling out Biden for failing to hold a press conference in recent days,” CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote on Sunday.
Many have scolded Biden for not taking questions from reporters following recent campaign events, and Axios reporter Jonathan Swan feels he should also get a one-on-one interview because they “provide a better opportunity for follow-ups and accountability” from the candidate.
It doesn’t appear that Joe Biden’s chat with Cardi B is going to slow down the growing calls for the former vice president to take questions from actual journalists.
President Trump said on Monday that he “has no choice” but to campaign during the Democratic National Convention because Biden get preferential treatment from the mainstream media.
“We have a guy that doesn’t come out of his basement and the media covers,” Trump said on during a phone interview on “Fox & Friends.”
“When they ask me questions, I have these people, there is fire out of their eyes ... they’re asking me questions and I see the fire is burning in their eyes,” Trump said. “I look at some of them and say, ‘Boy how can you have so much hatred?’”
Trump then said Biden doesn’t have to deal with the same type of hostility from the press. In fact, the presumptive Democratic nominee doesn’t have to deal with the press at all.
“He doesn’t take any questions from reporters,” Trump said. “Here I am getting bombs thrown at me every day by people that are totally, you know, frankly dishonest reporters, they’re espousing the view of the radical left, but here I am, bombs every day ... but this guy doesn’t come out of his basement and he hasn’t taken one question.”
Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, are scheduled to speak with ABC News’ David Muir for a one-hour special that will air on Sunday. But Muir was recently criticized by the pundits on left for going easy on Trump in an interview in May and some insiders don’t think it will be the hard-hitting interview needed to halt criticism.
“David got killed for his Trump interview and Biden clearly wants something similar,” a longtime media industry executive told Fox News. “Guaranteed fawning and softball questions.”
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