Biden’s Interview With Stephanopoulos Could Be Over in Just 15 Minutes

Joe Biden’s “extended” interview with George Stephanopolous, intended to jumpstart a comeback for the embattled president, will last as little as 15 minutes, The Daily Beast has learned.

The ABC News anchor will travel to Wisconsin Friday to speak with Biden as he conducts two hastily arranged campaign stops in the critical swing state. ABC announced Wednesday night that parts of the taped interview would air first on Friday’s edition of World News Tonight and be followed by an 8 p.m. primetime special, where it would take the place of Jeopardy! Masters. It will air again in full on This Week on Sunday.

But The Daily Beast has learned that behind the scenes there is deep concern inside ABC News’ upper echelons that Stephanopolous could get as little as 15 minutes to conduct what should be a searching interview offering insight into the president’s mental state.

ABC News earlier declined to comment on the length of the interview. The Biden campaign denied the suggestion when questioned by The Daily Beast, while a White House spokesperson said it was “False. The interview will be longer.”

While there is no agreement between ABC News and the White House on exactly how long Biden spends with the veteran interviewer, the logistics of conducting it during campaign stops could limit it severely. Senior network figures were involved in calls Wednesday to prepare questions for the shortest time in case attempts to speak with the president for longer failed.

One source suggested it would be more in the range of 20 minutes—still a relatively short period of time for even an accomplished interviewer to cover questions both over Biden’s cognitive state and his ability to stay in the campaign.

ABC executives hope that Biden–long known for his loquaciousness–will simply give them more time once they are on the ground. They are likely to be calculating that it is in Biden’s interests to show he is sharp, alert and able to deal with questions and therefore that he will keep the interview going. The length of the interview itself will be closely watched by those wondering about Biden’s state, while its depth and substance will be a critical test for the president. He told donors Wednesday that he was “clear eyed” and in the race to win, despite mounting calls for him to quit.

The brief nature of the interview came despite reports, including by the Associated Press, describing it as an “extended” encounter between the two men. Biden had conducted few in-depth interviews even before last Thursday’s disastrous debate. The Associated Press reported that he has given 36 news conferences since taking office, fewer than any since Ronald Reagan at the same point in his presidency. Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project, told the AP that Biden has conducted 128 interviews. At the same point in their presidencies Donald Trump had done 369 and Barack Obama 497.

On Tuesday, as the White House agreed with ABC News that it would offer an interview, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was seeking to “turn the page” on the debate’s fallout. At the White House press briefing Wednesday, Jean-Pierre highlighted the interview along with two interviews with Black-focused radio stations in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as evidence that Biden was accessible and speaking without the aid of a teleprompter. But on Wednesday evening Biden again stuck to the teleprompter as he conducted a White House ceremony to give two Union soldiers posthumous medals of honor.

An interview of as little as 15 or 20 minutes appears unlikely to answer demands from top Democrats that Biden make the case in public for his continued run for a second term. Under normal circumstances, a presidential interview with a major broadcaster of 20 minutes or so would be seen both as a normal level of access for the network, and a major scoop.

This time, however, it is the White House that needs ABC News more than the other way around. In the widely read Politico Playbook newsletter Wednesday evening, sources close to Biden said the president was “preparing for tough questions.” The sources also highlighted ABC News’ audience reach as the reason to have Stephanopoulos conduct it, just a month after a shorter interview with its World News Tonight anchor David Muir in Normandy during D-Day commemorations.

The sources told Politico that the White House felt ABC’s reporting was “the fairest and most consistent in offering context and fact-checks” but also highlighted that it has the highest ratings of any network or news channel, with 9.2 million watching the debate on ABC, according to Nielsen, per the Hollywood Reporter. That number, however, pales in comparison to the total 73 million who watched Biden’s stumbling and mumbling performance last Thursday, which created the crisis that the president now faces.