Calling into a morning TV show, ranting against “elites”, attacking the polls and his rivals — President Biden took a leaf out of Donald Trump’s playbook on Monday to try and get back on the front foot.
Viewers of Fox & Friends became accustomed to the impromptu phone interview during Trump’s presidency and on Monday it was the turn of MSNBC’s Morning Joe to receive a surprise call from the White House.
• Joe Biden drops out of presidential race – follow live
Biden sounded not only fired up but focused. He made incisive attacks on Trump, set his agenda clearly and had a remarkable challenge to his detractors: come for me at the convention if you dare.
Was he reading from notes? It was impossible to tell because he was not on camera. He always does better with notes, so much so that his team set up the ubiquitous teleprompter even in the living rooms of donors hosting small fundraising gatherings.
Advertisement
Biden also does better in the mornings, so the doubters will be watching closely when he holds a press conference at the Nato summit on Thursday evening.
Will his handlers take the risk of allowing random questioners? Andrea Lawful-Sanders, a Philadelphia radio presenter who interviewed Biden as part of his post-debate fightback, was fired on Sunday after it emerged that she used questions supplied by the White House.
Biden is fighting for his political life within his own party as elected members return to Congress for a week of soul-searching. Dismissing his critics as “elites” will sound arrogant to Democrats who were aghast at his CNN debate performance but it is calculated to bolster Biden with the grassroots, so they in turn apply pressure on elected members to stick with him in this make-or-break week. It is also pure Trump, who is adept at turning every setback into victimhood.
Biden is determined to tough it out and make it to the convention in mid-August, raising the spectre of a messy attempt to organise delegates to vote against him. It is reminiscent of the Stop Trump campaign at the 2016 Republican convention in Cleveland, which was squashed and ended up cementing his control of the party.
As Biden seeks to defy the signs of age-related decline, he has one trump card: no party has ever switched candidates with such a clean sweep of delegates this late in the game. The longer this drama drags on, the more difficult it will be to introduce a lesser-known figure to the American people. For once, time is on Biden’s side.
