When you have a complaint about how your candidate is being covered, the media is an easy target. They're biased, they're trying to amp up controversy to drive ratings or traffic. They're tools of their corporate owners or secretly hope the most controversial candidate will win because it's "good for business."
And to be fair, there is a lot of fairly terrible political coverage in 2024. But there's also one other factor to consider when trying to figure out why a story is getting so much attention.
Maybe they are on to something.
Since President Biden's jarring (and at times near horrifying) performance in last week's presidential debate, the various cable news outlets, major newspapers, and other political outlets have been devoting much of their time to examining one question: "Is Joe Biden going to withdraw from the Presidential race?"
Many Biden supporters have been pressing their argument that these stories are unnecessary overkill. That the coverage ignores Biden's many policy accomplishments and neglects to focus on the many flaws of Donald Trump.
Pushing back against the media is the easiest response to any public relations problem and it's true that political reporters and cable news anchors love a good controversy. But blaming them for this storyline isn't just inaccurate, it doesn't solve the problem.
It was the media that decided to combat Biden's poor debate performance with multiple days of no public appearances and limited contact with party officials and Congressional leaders. And no, having Biden's staff reach out isn't the same thing. It's like being caught having an affair and then having coworkers call your wife to assure her it was just a one-time thing. There is some news that demands to be delivered one-on-one.
It wasn't the media who convinced many big party donors to begin openly talking about halting their donations until Biden withdraws from the race. It wasn't the media who convinced a growing number of legislators to start openly discussing the need for President Biden to step down. And it certainly wasn't the media who decided that having Hunter Biden sit in on meetings was a great idea.
There is a growing sense in the Democrat party that it might be time for a change and the Biden campaign has decided to see if they can turn things around this weekend. The President did a couple of radio interviews, to mixed results. He did a live campaign event in Wisconsin, in which he declared he wasn't leaving the race.
And most important to the campaign, he agreed to be interviewed one-on-one by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, which aired Friday night.
Now, aside from the fact that a man who is sure he can perform on the fly would be doing multiple small meet and greets and interviews instead of one carefully controlled sit down, it's never a great thing when a candidate has to promote the fact an interview will be taped and aired unedited. That speaks to the level of concern and distrust surrounding the White House right now.
The Stephanopoulos interview ran 22 minutes and honestly, the best-case scenario for Democrats would have been for President Biden to have another bad performance. That would have almost certainly forced him to withdraw from the race and allowed the Democrats and the anti-Trump people to rally around another candidate - most likely Kamala Harris.
Instead, Biden was competent, but not stellar. He kept the mistakes to a minimum and while he still came off as a bit frail, he didn't have that blank look of death that surfaced a few times during last week's debate. In short, he didn't do enough to change anyone's mind. But he didn't do badly enough to end his presidential run.
Even worse, in this exchange, he gave an answer that likely strikes despair into the hearts of worried Democrats everywhere:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: “And if you stay in and Trump is elected and everything you're warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in January?”
PRESIDENT BIDEN: “I'll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that's what this is about.”
No, that is not what this is about, Mr. President. This election is not about you "doing your best." You have said on multiple occasions that this is an election Democrats must win. And I can almost guarantee that if you stay in the race and lose, history books will not look back and say, "Well, he gave it his best shot."
This isn't about your many policy accomplishments. This isn't about what you think would be fair in a better world. For better or worse, those swing state voters, those independents looking for an alternative to Donald Trump are increasingly convinced you are no longer up to the job.
I'm sure you disagree and you may be right. But the job of being an American President is as much about optics and the faith of the voters as it is policy. And as difficult as it is to accept, they've lost faith in you. This is not about being better than Donald Trump. This is about being good enough to beat Donald Trump.
This George Stephanopoulos interview was the worst-case scenario for Democrats. It didn't prove Joe Biden wasn't up to the job, but it won't convince anyone that he can still do it. Even worse, it likely helps harden the Biden family's belief that this will all blow over somehow if only there was a way to sprinkle enough magical dust over the situation.