A Conversation with President Biden
About a week before President Biden sat down for questioning by Special Counsel Robert Hur last year, he did a 20-minute interview with long-time journalist John Harwood, formerly of CNN who worked with ProPublica to film it. Because of heightened interest following last Thursday's debate -- and because of House MAGOPs trying to get the Hur questioning released -- ProPublica decided to release Harwood's interview with President Biden done as virtually the same time.
(They did earlier release a somewhat edited and "produced" version that used five cameras and had cutaways between the President and Harwood, as well as a few minor edits of crosstalk with camera operators. This new video is completely unedited and uses only the camera focused on President Biden.)
As Pro Publica notes, this is not current, but from late September, almost nine months ago. So, it is not offered as "evidence" of anything. Just the best footage available of the most recent lengthy sit-down interview that the President has done. They mentioned, as well, that John Harwood did not submit his questions ahead of time, nor did he get approval for the topics.
Here's what they wrote about it --
"In the wake of President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance, his opponents and most major media organizations have pointed out that he has done few interviews that give the public an opportunity to hear him speak without a script or teleprompters.
'So much has been made of this limited access that the impressions from Special Counsel Robert K. Hur about his five hours of interviews with the president on Oct. 8 and 9 drove months of coverage. The prosecutor said Biden had 'diminished faculties in advancing age' and called him a 'well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' Biden angrily dismissed these assertions, which Vice President Kamala Harris called 'politically motivated.'"
The interview was done on Sept. 29, nine days before the Hur interviews began. ProPublica writes that they know this video won't settle any arguments about President Biden today, but they say believe it important to let the public see one of Biden’s rare, extended conversations with a reporter. They add that --
"Recording began as soon as Biden was miked and sitting in the chair that Friday at 2:50 p.m. Earlier that day, Biden’s press staff had said the president would have only 10 minutes for the interview, instead of the previously agreed upon 20 minutes. We requested that the interview go the full 20 minutes. You can hear during the unedited interview a couple of moments when White House staff interrupted to signal that the interview should come to a close. Biden seemed eager to continue talking."
To repeat, this is from almost nine months ago, and not a document of President Biden today. But it is a document of President Biden just a week before talking with Republican Robert Hur who unnecessarily went out of his way to make comments about the President's memory and demeanor. What we see here is an 81-year old man who is thoughtful, knowledgeable and insightful on everything asked of him for the full twenty minutes. Without a single lie in sight.
It should be added that, while this is from nine months ago, the last interview I can recall Trump doing with a serious journalist, Jonathan Swan of Axios, was almost four years ago.
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