President Joe Biden is breaking the annual pre-Super Bowl tradition for the second year in a row.
CBS News confirmed to Variety that President Biden will not participate in the interaction during pregame broadcasts leading up to the Super Bowl.
Variety reports that CBS News’ offer is believed to have been for a 15-minute interview, three to four minutes of which were scheduled to air on the network’s pregame broadcast.
But this is the second year in a row that President Biden has turned down the opportunity, which usually draws tens of millions of people.
President Biden declines pregame interview
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The interviews have been a tradition for decades, starting with President Barack Obama in 2009.
Previously, President George W. Bush participated in the 2002 Super Bowl coin toss and joked with host Jim Nantz before CBS Sports’ 2004 broadcast.
President Trump chose to skip a roundtable discussion with NBC News and anchor Lester Holt in 2018.
President Trump reportedly wanted to avoid a conversation about criticism of NFL players who kneeled during the national anthem to protest social injustice in the United States.
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White House press secretary Ben LaBolt told Variety: “We hope viewers enjoyed what they saw: the game.”
President Biden has had a complicated relationship with journalists, as he has not given many press conferences since taking over the Oval Office in 2021.
But he did speak to CBS News hosts Norah O’Donnell and Scott Pelley, and recently admitted to brief interactions with Robert Costa and Ed O’Keefe.
The incident comes amid what was believed to be a tense relationship between President Biden and Fox News.
Presenters who conducted pre-Super Bowl interviews talked about how difficult it was to interview the president.
Savannah Guthrie, who interviewed President Obama in 2015, told Variety: “Remember, this was an interview conducted during the Super Bowl pre-show.
“The thing that everyone is thinking about the most, or the last thing they want to talk about, is politics.
”[It is about] You want to strike the right balance and conduct interviews that ask informative and important questions while keeping the tone appropriate for the situation on the day. ”