Playbook: The biggest interview of Joe Biden’s life

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With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine

DRIVING THE DAY

DEMOCRACY IN THE U.K. — The Labour Party is back in power after 14 years in the political wilderness following a landslide election victory over PM RISHI SUNAK’s Conservatives, who suffered their worst-ever defeat.

Meet the new PM: Labour Leader KEIR STARMER, a 61-year-old human rights lawyer (read our colleagues’ new profile here), was appointed prime minister by King CHARLES III earlier this morning. With a huge 170-seat majority predicted in the House of Commons, Starmer now has complete control of British politics for the next five years.

Where are they now: Among the many Tories to lose last night? Former PM LIZ TRUSS. Much more from our team in London

BIDEN’S TEST — President JOE BIDEN’s effort to prove to Democrats that he’s up to the task of leading is off to a rocky start, as he faces down a critical stretch trying to demonstrate that he’s worthy of the nomination.

Yesterday, Biden appeared to stumble, stutter and sometimes cut himself off mid-sentence in two radio interviews and remarks at the White House. No, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the debate. But it was noticeable, especially as eyes are trained upon him, parsing his every move for signs that last Thursday was more than a singular “bad night.”

  • During an interview with a Philly radio station, Biden said: “I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first Black woman, to serve with a Black president.” Wait, what? Reporters who cover the White House know that he likely conflated a favorite talking point about serving both with the nation’s first Black president, BARACK OBAMA, and the reality that his own vice president, KAMALA HARRIS, is the first Black woman to serve in that role.
  • During the same appearance, while speaking about shattering discrimination against Catholics, Biden claimed to be “the first president [who] got elected statewide in the state of Delaware.” He apparently meant to say he was the first Catholic to be elected statewide in the Blue Hen State.
  • And during brief remarks to military families celebrating Independence Day, Biden accidentally called DONALD TRUMP “one of our colleagues” before correcting himself. He also appeared to begin telling a story about Trump to make a point — only to abruptly stop mid-sentence and conclude by saying “I probably shouldn’t say, at any rate.”

The Biden campaign has accused the media of devolving into hysterics in its coverage, and taking something that’s “not news” out of context — that even as he phrases things inelegantly, his intent is often apparent, and that some of the trip ups are the remnants of the stutter he had as a child.

But right now, these flubs matter. Biden faces a public that broadly sees him as too old and lacking in the mental acuity to be president. And while political journalists and plugged-in Democrats may know the point Biden is trying to convey as he stumbles over words, an Average Joe voter may not — and the trip-up is far more likely to go viral and reinforce impressions of him. There are also real stakes here: This is the guy tasked with prosecuting the political case against both Trump and Trumpism.

Case in point: In Madison, Wisconsin, where Biden is set to campaign today, one Democratic voter told WaPo’s Hannah Knowles that he wants Biden to be replaced by, basically, anyone else: “I’m not asking for much,” he said. “Just, like, knows how to address a camera … Can shake hands.”

And then there’s this: From our conversations, Democrats appear increasingly resigned to the belief that the campaign is unsalvageable and Biden has to go. The one thing that could maybe turn that impression around is if Biden proves that he’s up for the grueling campaign ahead. Lawmakers are not convinced he is. Some aren’t even sure there is anything he can do or say over the next week to restore their confidence — despite the $50 million July ad blitz the campaign is announcing this morning.

It won’t help, of course, that Biden reportedly told Democratic governors during their Wednesday-evening meeting that he needs to sleep more, work fewer hours and avoid events after 8 p.m., NYT’s Reid Epstein and Maggie Haberman scooped yesterday. (Good luck with that, Mr. President: You’re the leader of the free world.)

When asked about his health status, he told governors he was fine — “it’s just my brain,” he said per the NYT, in a remark that is only going to exacerbate Democratic heartburn, even if he was joking, as Biden allies have argued.

Meanwhile, deep-pocketed donors are starting to organize to push Biden out of the race in what NYT’s Ken Vogel, Teddy Schleifer and Lauren Hirsch call “a remarkable and growing rift between the party’s contributor class and its standard-bearer that could have an impact on down-ballot races.”

Some donors are trying to raise what’s essentially a $100-million escrow fund that will be used to bankroll a Biden replacement, the trio scooped. Others are threatening not to give to Democrats until their party leader steps aside, including an heir to the Disney fortune, ABIGAIL DISNEY, who told the Times the Biden campaign and groups that support him “will not receive another dime from me until they bite the bullet and replace Biden at the top of the ticket.”

All of this is to underscore that Biden’s interview with ABC News today is just about as high stakes as it gets.

In the president’s sit-down with GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS — who, as a former White House comms director and senior adviser to President BILL CLINTON, has been on both sides of this kind of PR crisis — presents the longtime news host with a different opportunity than debate moderators: He has the chance to “play the roles of devil’s advocate, voter surrogate and fact checker,” as Brian Stelter previews this morning for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The White House, incredibly, is leaning into this dynamic, almost casting Biden-Stephanopoulos as a televised cognitive test,” Stelter writes, arguing that “it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the most important interview of Stephanopoulos’s long and distinguished career.”

But it’s also likely the most important interview of Joe Biden’s long life.

The POLITICO newsroom huddled to put together nine questions we’d ask the president if we were in Stephanopoulos’ shoes. Among them:

  • Were you aware of the ongoing efforts by your staff to insulate you from detailed interviews, sharply reducing your schedule? Do you now think this may have given the public a false view of your well-being?
  • Have you been tested for any kind of neurological condition? Have you received any diagnosis at all? Given the extraordinary circumstances of your being by far the oldest president in American history, will you fully release all medical records, including those that go well beyond what you have released to date?
  • How, if at all, has your thinking about age been informed by seeing Senate colleagues like STROM THURMOND, ROBERT BYRD and DIANNE FEINSTEIN continue deep into their 80s and 90s, in some cases with quite serious health issues?

The interview airs at 8 p.m. tonight on ABC.

Happy Friday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. What would you ask Biden if you were interviewing him? Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

LEDE OF THE DAY — “One of America’s political parties has a presidential candidate who is really old and showing it. The other has a presidential candidate who is a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, business fraudster and self-described aspiring dictator for a day. And also really old,” writes NYT’s Peter Baker. “One of the parties is up in arms about its nominee and trying to figure out how to replace him at the last minute. The other is not.”

THE NEW MAP — “Battleground Map Shows Signs of Expansion for Trump as Biden Struggles,” by WSJ’s John McCormick: “Only about a half-dozen states were thought to be in play in the race between Biden and former President Donald Trump, but in the wake of their June 27 face-off there is some evidence that the Republican might be competitive in states that have backed Democrats in recent elections. Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia are among those being closely watched.”

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY

At the White House

Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning. Biden will travel to Madison, Wisconsin, for a campaign event this afternoon before heading to Wilmington, Delaware, in the evening. Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will gaggle aboard Air Force One en route to Wisconsin.

Harris will receive briefings and conduct internal meetings with staff in the afternoon before traveling to New Orleans in the evening.

PLAYBOOK READS

9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US

1. THE FLOTUS FILES: It is no secret that first lady JILL BIDEN holds perhaps more sway than anyone with the president. Now, as Joe Biden plays a game of high-stakes chicken with his own party, his wife may be the deciding factor of whether he sticks it out or steps aside. WaPo’s Kara Voght and Jesús Rodríguez chronicle a 30-hour stretch this week when Jill hit the road to proselytize for her husband all while the cries for him to exit the campaign grew louder.

“Following the first lady’s retinue on this 30-hour, four-stop jaunt was like watching a split screen: At pleasant appearances before supportive crowds, everything seemed normal. Wheels up, wheels down — each landing brought media reports and worrisome takes signaling more trouble for Biden’s campaign,” they write.

“Some have compared her to EDITH WILSON, who ran the White House after her husband had a stroke in 1919. Others have invoked LADY MACBETH, the power-hungry Shakespearean queen who manipulates a weakened man. Biden’s right-wing critics have long lobbed such parallels at Jill. What’s changed is that some members of the president’s own party are now repeating them.”

2. KNOWING DOUG BURGUM: As he rises to the top of Trump’s VP shortlist, the North Dakota governor has undergone something of a MAGA makeover. And the man that stands beside Trump is one that some back home don’t fully recognize.

“The new souped-up Burgum has been reimagined as a warrior for Trump. He now describes President Joe Biden as a dictator and a Hamas collaborator. He derides the American judicial system as a sham. This has all come as a shock to those in North Dakota who thought they knew him well,” Stephen Rodrick writes from Amidon, North Dakota for POLITICO Magazine.

“Once a dedicated follower of moderation, Burgum now is a late-in-life convert to the kill-or-be-killed political world as he focuses on becoming Trump’s vice presidential choice. While [longtime friend JOHN] HANSON remains confident Burgum would be a restraint on Trump, others wonder what happened to their guy and whether Burgum has morphed into just another enabler.”

3. TRUMP 2.0: While Trump touts an agenda that would slash taxes, increase deportations and ramp up tariffs, there’s one major difference between the state of things now and when he first ran: This ain’t your 2016 economy. “The years of unusually rapid inflation that resulted have changed the nation’s economic picture in important ways,” NYT’s Jeanna Smialek writes. “That combination — jittery inflation expectations and higher interest rates — could make many of the ideas Mr. Trump talks about on the campaign trail either riskier or more costly than before, especially at a moment when the economy is running at full speed and unemployment is very low.”

Related read: “Trump Advisers Call for U.S. Nuclear Weapons Testing if He Is Elected,” by NYT’s William Broad

4. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Officials in the U.S. and Israel “expressed renewed optimism over a cease-fire deal in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas revised its position and Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU of Israel then told President Biden that he is sending a new delegation of negotiators to the stalled talks,” NYT’s Aaron Boxerman, Michael Shear and Thomas Fuller report.

“White House officials said they believed new progress in the talks amounted to what one repeatedly called ‘a breakthrough’ in the monthslong negotiations, though they said that it would take some time to work out the many steps involved in implementing the truce. Israeli and other officials involved in the talks agreed that there had been progress but described it in more cautious terms.”

5. WHAT TO WATCH TODAY: “The U.S. Jobs Report May Hold Clues to the Durability of Labor Market Strength,” by NYT’s Talmon Joseph Smith: “The monthly employment report on Friday is projected to show that employers added 190,000 jobs in June, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. That would be a downshift from the 272,000 jobs added in May. The economy remains solid overall, with unemployment still low, the stock market hovering at new highs and wage growth outpacing inflation. But many economists say the labor market is in a sensitive place.”

6. A JUSTICE FOR ALL?: One of the most intriguing subplots to the just-closed Supreme Court term was that of Justice AMY CONEY BARRETT’s shape-shifting on the bench. “With piercing questions from the bench, and a willingness to break ranks with other Republican nominees in an era of conservative dominance on the court, Barrett played a new role this term — calling for a pragmatic, incremental approach to some cases in which her colleagues wanted to move more aggressively,” WaPo’s Ann Marimow writes.

“Barrett, who at 52 is also the youngest justice, pushed back openly against other conservatives this term on the proper role of tradition and history in deciding cases. She did so most notably in her concurrence when the court upheld a federal gun law that takes guns from people who are subject to domestic violence restraining orders. But legal analysts said her jurisprudence remains firmly to the right.”

7. FEELING THE HEAT: “Inside Biden’s push to stop heat deaths after decades of delay,” by POLITICO’s E&E News’ Ariel Wittenberg: “The White House sped through its review of the proposal — squeezing what can often take several months into three weeks — leading to an announcement five days after Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump prompted worries among the president’s allies about the future of his reelection campaign. The heat rules come as Biden tries to shore up support among key constituencies such as young voters, people of color and blue-collar workers. Biden is trying to break an impasse that has prevented heat protections since the Nixon administration.”

8. ON THE HOMEFRONT: “‘Stuck’: Housing market malaise may last for years,” by Katy O’Donnell: “The U.S. housing market — plagued by high interest rates and sluggish sales — is poised to become a major drag on the economy heading into the election. A series of reports in recent weeks have presented a bleak picture of a once-hopeful market that makes up as much as 18 percent of the economy: Sales of existing homes are down, and pending sales have sunk to a record low. Housing starts in May dropped to their lowest level since June 2020, when the pandemic brought everything to a halt. Residential investment has fallen amid the highest borrowing costs in more than two decades.”

9. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS: “China Is Finally Starting to Do Something About the U.S. Fentanyl Crisis,” by WSJ’s Brian Spegele in Beijing: “China is taking tentative new steps to help disrupt the global supply chain fueling the opioid crisis after intensifying criticism from the U.S. that its chemical factories are partly responsible for the deadly scourge. After a long freeze in joint counternarcotics work between the countries, President Biden and Chinese leader XI JINPING pledged to resume cooperation at a summit in California last November. Since then, Chinese authorities have quietly shut down some sellers of precursor chemicals used by Mexican cartels to make fentanyl and say they are close to imposing new regulations sought by the U.S. on three additional chemicals.”

SUNDAY SO FAR …

ABC “This Week”: President Joe Biden. Panel: Donna Brazile, Sarah Isgur, Susan Page and Marianna Sotomayor.

CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) … Jens Stoltenberg … Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).

FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Tim Ryan. Legal Panel: Jonathan Turley and Tom Dupree. Sunday Panel: Michael Allen, Doug Heye, Julia Manchester and Meghan Hays.

NBC “Meet the Press”: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Panel: Matt Gorman, Mike Memoli, Stephanie Murphy and Amy Walter.

CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Panel: Rep Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Scott Jennings, Doug Thornell and Shermichael Singleton.

NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.). Panel: Bob Cusack, Daniel Lippman, Robert Doar and Tia Mitchell.

PLAYBOOKERS

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) … Reps. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) … former Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) … NYT’s David Sanger … Mike Stranz … Michael LaRosa … Dylan Johnson of the Trump campaign … Laura Peavey of the House Financial Services GOP … Kerry Picket … Mike Manatos of Manatos & Manatos … Walt Cronkite of the Structured Finance Association … POLITICO’s Zack Colman and Jade Cuevas … Jana Toner … Hannah MacInnis … CBS’ Alisa Wiersema … Steve McMillin … Beverly Kirk … NBC’s Julie Shapiro … Qualcomm’s Angela Baker … former Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and David Dreier (R-Calif.) … Steve Rattner of Willett Advisors … John Lawrence … Barb Barrett of Stateline … Julie Nixon Eisenhower … David Mortlock of Willkie Farr & Gallagher … Mira Ricardel

Send Playbookers tips to [email protected] or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.