President Joe Biden has long faced criticism for giving fewer interviews than his past several predecessors.
On Thursday, Biden spoke to MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace in person… and he got up and walked away as Wallace was still talking, live on-air.
Biden used taxpayer money to fund part of his trip to MSNBC’s studio in New York, and he spoke to Wallace for 20 minutes.
The president spoke at length about the media.
“This is not a criticism of the press. It’s an observation. There’s a lot to be worried about around the world, and talking to a lot of reporters, they tell me — I’m going to be careful what I say here — a number of reporters have indicated that there’s [sic] no editors anymore, on what they do,” Biden said.
“I had one reporter tell me… ‘I’m a reporter… I’m not an editorial writer, but you need a brand so people will watch you and listen to you because of what they think you’re going to say.’ I just think there’s a lot changing.”
Wallace simply said, “Huh.”
Biden also blamed media outlets for his abysmal polling numbers.
“I know the polling numbers are not good,” he said. “They were the same way when I ran and won. Everybody thought I was going to get clobbered in the primary. I got 80 million votes. In the [midterm] election, it was the same thing.”
When Donald Trump was president, he was blasted by the mainstream media for antagonizing the press and for giving interviews to sympathetic media outlets.
Biden, meanwhile, has done far fewer interviews.
Even Nicole Wallace acknowledged the rarity of Biden’s in-studio appearance. She said, “Consider it your chair. Consider it an open invitation. There are going to be a lot of things on people’s minds, and I hope you’ll look at this as a place where you can come and talk about anything that’s on your mind.”
Biden last gave a formal interview in May, also on MSNBC.
But the worst was when Biden left in a hurry, without waiting for Wallace to finish talking.
Take a look —
Joe Biden awkwardly stands up and walks off the set of his MSNBC interview instead of waiting for the segment to go to commercial. pic.twitter.com/MHcJ1ALmKQ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 29, 2023
The White House has dismissed criticism of Biden’s infrequent interviews, and they’ve defended Biden’s decision to use taxpayer funds for his New York trip.
“It’s a mixed — mixed travel trip with official and political — political portions,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to New York.
Asked what the official part of the trip was, Jean-Pierre responded, “You all are always criticizing the president for not doing enough interviews — right?… He’s going to New York, and we took the opportunity to go in studio.”
Watch the entire, unedited interview here —
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contribtued to this article.