A true Washington psychodrama will unfold today a mile from the White House, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Why it matters: The stakes are even higher than during the first presidential debate. If Biden looks weak and wobbly, his Democratic critics will pounce and crank up resignation calls. If he looks strong and steady, the anti-Biden campaign could stall.
The other side: White House officials point to Biden's 47 interviews this year (one-third Donald Trump's rate for interviews and pressers at this point in office). Biden will do an interview in Austin on Monday with NBC's Lester Holt — airing as a prime-time special at 9 p.m. ET, counterprogramming the opening night of the Republican convention.
- A red-hot press corps — which feels ignored, used and deceived — will get its first true unfiltered crack at grilling President Biden, the most media-sheltered president of modern times. "The dogs are loose," a Biden adviser told us.
- Biden, bitter over media coverage of his age and acuity, gets his shot at redemption — a chance to show the press and public he can think fast, handle the heat, and spar and speak improvisationally without glitching.
Why it matters: The stakes are even higher than during the first presidential debate. If Biden looks weak and wobbly, his Democratic critics will pounce and crank up resignation calls. If he looks strong and steady, the anti-Biden campaign could stall.
- Biden's every word and move will be dissected, every mangled sentence scrutinized, every stiff move or mind freeze discussed.
- A top Democratic operative said of today's press conference: "If he performs well, it still doesn't put it to rest. He's got to do that over and over and over. That's the problem for him."
- Another former official said: "If he does push-ups on stage, it doesn't matter" — the damage was done when 50+ million saw the debate.
- A natural tension always exists. But this is different: Biden has operated in a protective bubble, often hermetically sealed from tough questioning. Many reporters believe the White House hid signs of Biden's aging, and played them or badgered them when they did push on the topic.
- Many are being harassed on social media for being too soft on Biden. In our experience, most reporters are more insecure than people think, and highly sensitive to how friends and foes see them, especially on X.
- Post-debate, reporters have been much more combative and skeptical. This will uncork at 5:30 p.m. ET today at Biden's first real "big boy" press conference in — well, forever. It'll come after a fairly long day of work at the NATO summit.
- The New York Times Opinion section has been relentless on Biden: two unsigned editorials + multiple columns by Tom Friedman and Nick Kristoff (again!), and opinion pieces by George Clooney and James Carville. All have been blunt, some brutal. The Biden White House has been apoplectic about it.
- Like the debate, this is a time, venue and risk of the White House's choosing. Despite promising more improvisational moments to validate his fitness and lucidity, Biden has done one such event post-debate. The rest is all choreography.
The other side: White House officials point to Biden's 47 interviews this year (one-third Donald Trump's rate for interviews and pressers at this point in office). Biden will do an interview in Austin on Monday with NBC's Lester Holt — airing as a prime-time special at 9 p.m. ET, counterprogramming the opening night of the Republican convention.
- Biden aides savored a pre-debate Media Matters for America tally saying "five of the top US newspapers have published nearly 10 times as many articles focused just on Biden's age or mental acuity as focused on just Trump's."
- But Sanger said the White House "deflected for months, or years, questions about the president's health and diagnoses ... The question is whether the president can win back the lost confidence. I don't know. But what I would seek as a White House reporter would be evidence that the president has been exhaustively tested and all relevant information has been fully disclosed."