An unburdened Biden embraces more freewheeling public appearances as he advocates for Harris
By Betsy Klein, CNN
Washington (CNN) — As he approaches the lame duck era of his first and only term, President Joe Biden is showing signs that he’s less constrained by the scrutiny of a campaign.
On Wednesday, that means he’s taking a little time to enjoy “The View.”
Joining the more freewheeling format of ABC’s signature talk show signals a shift for a president who did a pair of high-stakes network interviews in July defending his capacity to serve as he fought for his political future. Now unburdened by the pressures of campaigning, particularly the constant and intense focus on his age and verbal slips, the president is ramping up his unscripted engagements and making appearances focused on shoring up his legacy.
“Joe Biden is back to being the relaxed, authentic person we all knew,” said one former Biden aide.
There is an implicit understanding that the future of Biden’s policy legacy is directly tied to Harris’ success in November. The president’s strategy in the coming weeks before the election, a White House official said, is to “do as much as possible in the remainder of his term to help his partner, Vice President Harris, get elected and meet Americans where they are to communicate what we are getting done for them.”
Biden is expected to focus more on his accomplishments – implementation of key legislation; his decades-long championing of the “Violence Against Women Act”; and his broader “unity agenda” of mental health access, caring for veterans and his work to end cancer, among other topics – than on Harris’ candidacy during the interview on “The View,” according to another source familiar with the appearance.
That focus could be aimed at placing some strategic separation between the president and his former running mate. In a national NBC News poll released earlier this week, 40% of voters “say they’re more concerned that Harris will continue the same approach as Biden.”
He’ll also appear in the coming days on the “A Bit of Optimism” podcast for a discussion on leadership with host Simon Sinek.
Biden will certainly receive tough questions from the hosts of “The View,” whose political views range across the spectrum. Wednesday will mark Biden’s 10th appearance on the show, which is where he did his first interview after announcing his 2020 run.
“It’s an incredibly smart move of him to come on, and I’m surprised he didn’t earlier, particularly during his candidacy. ‘The View’ is the most-watched daytime show, reaches millions of households, and the audience skews female,” said a source familiar with the appearance.
The source added, “It’s a great place for him to promote his legacy efforts and try to boost Kamala Harris.”
White House officials argue the communications strategy is unchanged – but one official acknowledged that a directive to shake up the tactics is coming straight from Biden.
“The president wants to be out there a lot and mix things up. The president’s directives to his team have been to aggressively execute on his agenda, hit the road to highlight the Biden-Harris record and communicate directly with Americans on the impact of this agenda,” the official said.
In the two months since Biden dropped out of the race, he has demonstrated significantly more willingness to engage with reporters in more informal settings, including Marine One departures and arrivals and following other events at the White House. He has taken questions from press 22 times since his July 21 announcement.
By contrast, Biden took questions from reporters in informal settings seven times in the two-month period before that, plus three formal news conferences.
During his presidency, former President Donald Trump transformed the informal Q&A cadence with his frequent “chopper talk” engagements with reporters. Biden has largely followed suit with a significant, though slightly lower, number of informal engagements, according to data kept by Martha Joynt Kumar, a scholar specializing in White House communications and presidential transitions.
Still, the president has done few media appearances in this time. He talked to “CBS Sunday Morning” in mid-August about the decision to step aside and his concerns about the future of democracy. He became the first president to sit down for an interview with an LGBTQ+ outlet, “The Blade,” earlier this month. And he praised Vice President Kamala Harris in an appearance on the syndicated “DeDe in the Morning” radio show.
Sinek’s podcast will offer a window into how Biden thinks about his own career, sharing his perspective on leadership and hope.
Sources say his appearances on “The View” and “A Bit of Optimism” are consistent with the White House and once-Biden campaign’s long-held media goal: to meet Americans – and voters – where they are, both on traditional platforms, from evening newscasts to late night shows, and digital platforms, including engagement on social media.
For his part, Biden has appeared genuinely unencumbered in this new, less scripted era, cracking jokes and speaking off-the-cuff on the road and at the White House.
He traveled to Philadelphia last week for a conference of historically Black colleges and universities, spending equal time speaking from a teleprompter to event attendees and working an overflow room afterward with vintage Biden tales.
He donned a red Trump hat as he visited with families at the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department on September 11, offering a light moment during an otherwise solemn day of commemorations.
And when he stopped by a White House conference for digital creators last month, he joked he invited them “because I’m looking for a job.”
“You are the source of news, and more people want to go into your business than the other these days. When I retire, where do you think I’m going? I got contacts,” he said, laughing.
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