Katelyn Caralle, US Political Reporter, Nikki Schwab, Senior US Political Reporter, Dailymail.com
21:01 February 11, 2024, Updated 21:20 February 11, 2024
- Biden’s campaign co-chairman said Biden won’t do Super Bowl interviews because “people want to think about football and not politics.”
- The president also released a video on Sunday about “shrinkflation,” in which snacks and food products become smaller in size or contain less content, but remain the same price.
- X Republicans blame this phenomenon on Biden and his economic policies
Joe Biden is not giving the traditional presidential interview before the Super Bowl. His team claims it’s to allow viewers to focus on the football instead of “listening to politicians”.
Nevertheless, in a gloomy message on Super Bowl Sunday, the president released a message to X slamming “shrinkflation” in popular snack foods.
“If you’re like me, you like to be surrounded by a snack or two while watching the big game,” Biden said in a 48-second video that appeared to be shot in the White House Family Theater. Afterwards, he added: One thing you may have noticed when shopping for gaming snacks. Portion sizes are smaller, but you’ll still be charged the same amount. ”
The video shows Biden campaign co-chairman Mitch Landrieu telling NBC News that the president didn’t want to appear on the airwaves before the Super Bowl so people could take a break from politics while watching football. It was published immediately after.
“Was it a mistake for him not to do the Super Bowl interview and miss out on talking to 60 million people?” “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker asked Sunday morning. asked Landrieu in an interview.
“No, I don’t think so,” he replied. “I think people want to watch the Super Bowl tonight and think about football.”
“They don’t want to listen to politicians. So I think he made the right choice for himself at this point,” Landrieu added.
But Biden’s message on “shrinkflation” echoes Republican X (former Twitter), who says the president is to blame for inflation, rising prices and companies shrinking their products to cut costs. It did not resonate with them.
In response to Biden’s message, far-right media outlet Conservative Brief said, “In perhaps the strangest thing about this Sunday’s Super Bowl, Joe Biden is running a commercial complaining about the economic situation he created. !” he posted.
“Joe Biden couldn’t do a Super Bowl interview because it was past his bedtime, but he made a propaganda video in the hopes that people wouldn’t realize that shrinkflation is the result of inflation courtesy of Bidennomics. I had time to post,” radio host Jason Lantz posted.
“My reaction to the president is that shrinkflation is real, but it’s a result of Bidenmics,” Stephen Hastie wrote.
Biden, 81, decided to skip a traditional sit-down interview for the second time ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl.
The president, who is facing a tough re-election battle, is ignoring an interview with CBS, which will broadcast this year’s big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
Variety was first to report on the White House’s decision, with public relations director Ben LaBolt saying, “We hope our viewers enjoy the fight, which is what they’re looking forward to,” and provided no further explanation. There wasn’t.
It is believed that he declined an interview last year because conservative-leaning Fox News was broadcasting the game and had asked him to be present in advance.
In 2021-2022, Biden participated in a Q&A session first with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell and then with NBC’s Lester Holt.
Former President Donald Trump also skipped pregame interviews, but spent his early months in office fighting with the NFL over the decision of some players to kneel during the national anthem in protest of racial injustice. .
Trump, who is once again a candidate for the White House, has expressed his intention to have the ball once again and accept interviews.
“Crooked Joe Biden just announced he won’t be doing a big Super Bowl interview. Great decision, he can’t put two sentences together,” President Trump said on Monday’s Truth Social. I commented on it. “I will be happy to serve as his successor. I hope he will give me a ‘gold medal’ rating!” said the former president, who is expected to run in 2024.
President Trump later reiterated this suggestion in an interview with conservative podcaster Dan Bongino.
“He can’t do that because he can’t talk,” Trump said of the president’s refusal. “If they want, I’ll go to the Super Bowl in his place. We’ll get very good ratings,” the former president added.
Biden has generally avoided media exposure, choosing to answer questions from reporters in less formal settings, such as when leaving the White House to board Marine One on the South Lawn.
He did not participate in year-end press conferences in 2023 and rarely sat down for television or print interviews.
Biden’s last two television interviews were with First Lady Jill Biden, with Al Roker at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and with Ryan Seacrest on New Year’s Eve.
Before that, his most recent substantive sit-down was a 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley that aired in mid-October.
Biden participated in 86 interviews during his first three years in office, according to numbers compiled by Martha Kumar, a political science professor emeritus at Towson University who studies White House communications.
This compares to President Trump’s 300 interviews and President Barack Obama’s 422 interviews during his first three years in the White House.
With polls slumping, the Republican primaries over, and former President Donald Trump likely to become the Republican nominee, some Democrats worry that it won’t be enough for Biden to play it safe. ing.
“He’s probably trying to avoid tough questions about Gaza and the border, but I think he’s making a mistake,” one Democratic strategist told DailyMail.com on condition of anonymity.
“This should be an opportunity to criticize House Republicans who blocked aid to Israel and undermined a bipartisan immigration deal,” the source added. “He has to play offensively because he can’t campaign from his basement again.”
Other Democrats didn’t see this as a missed opportunity.
“There are three types of people who watch the Super Bowl: those who care about the actual game, those who care about the commercials, and those who care about the halftime show. We haven’t met yet,” said Democratic strategist Rodel Molyneaux, a partner at Rock Solutions.
But by skipping the interview, Biden could miss out on an even bigger chunk of the voting bloc this year.
There’s always a lot of interest in the Super Bowl, but this year’s game will also feature Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, so there will be a lot of Swifties. She is expected to gather and watch the game.
Swift entered politics in 2018, supporting Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s Democratic opponent Phil Bredesen in Tennessee.
She publicly supported Biden in 2020.
Now that Swift has risen to stardom, Trump’s allies are already worried about her supporting Biden in 2024.
Rolling Stone magazine reported last week that the MAGA world is preparing for a “crusade” against pop stars.
Fox News host Jesse Watters said last month that Swift was “a front for a secret political agenda.”
“About four years ago, the Pentagon’s Physiological Operations Command came to light trying to turn Taylor Swift into an asset,” he said on his prime-time show.
Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh responded to the wild claims in a statement, saying, “As far as this conspiracy theory goes, we will dispel it.”
Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami, who withdrew from the race and supported Trump, told X in late January that the Super Bowl would be rigged in favor of the Chiefs to help Biden’s re-election bid. surfaced.
“Who will win next month’s Super Bowl? And will there be massive presidential support from artificially culturally supported couples this fall?” Ramaswamy mused. “It’s a bit of wild speculation here, but let’s see how it ages over the next eight months.”