If he succeeds, he will not be saved, but if he fails, his candidacy for a second term will really be hanging by a thread: Joe Biden is giving a very high-risk interview on Friday.
In one week, the 81-year-old Democrat has absolutely failed to erase the disastrous impression caused by his failed debate against Donald Trump on June 27.
Since that televised duel, Americans have not seen him speak freely, without a teleprompter, and over an extended period of time.
He will have the opportunity on Friday, in an interview with a star journalist and presenter from ABC, George Stephanopoulos, which will be recorded during a campaign trip to Wisconsin.
For now, the American president remains firm in his position, despite the intense pressure.
“I have no intention of leaving,” he assured on Thursday during Independence Day.
And her campaign is doubling down on its efforts. On Friday, it released an intense battle plan for July that includes a blitz of TV spots, trips to key states, including the southwest during the Republican convention (July 15-18), and voter outreach.
Translation: nothing that would suggest that he would consider throwing in the towel.
Joe Biden is also due to host a summit of NATO leaders next week.
Special broadcast
As proof that the interview is highly anticipated, the television channel has changed its broadcast schedule.
ABC originally planned to show excerpts on Friday, then Saturday, with the full broadcast on Sunday.
But it is finally on Friday evening, at 8:00 p.m. local time, that viewers will be able to see the interview in its entirety, as part of a special broadcast.
Joe Biden will face a journalist who knows the workings of political communication like no one else.
George Stephanopoulos actually worked for former Democratic President Bill Clinton, both during his first campaign and then in the White House, where he was one of his closest advisers during his first term.
Former stutterer
Facing Donald Trump last week, the American president struggled for 90 minutes to express himself, stumbling over words and losing his train of thought, which triggered a wave of panic within his party.
Four months before the presidential election against the Republican billionaire, Democrats doubt his ability to win, and an overwhelming majority of Americans do not believe he is capable of governing for four more years if he wins.
As much as in substance, Joe Biden, a former stutterer who has never been a very fluent speaker, will have to convince on ABC with his elocution, his syntax and his facial expressions.
Earlier this week, one of the most influential Democratic voices, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, deemed it “essential” that Joe Biden do one or even two high-profile interviews.
Other Biden supporters have called for a lengthy news conference to judge his ability to respond with vigor.
The American president, who rarely takes part in the exercise, or only for a limited number of questions with journalists chosen in advance, has promised to give one next week, but the modalities are not yet known.
A former advisor to Bill Clinton and a seasoned political journalist, George Stephanopoulos is above all a very effective interviewer, against whom Joe Biden will partly play on Friday to maintain his candidacy for the White House.
This ABC News mainstay was tasked with asking the president some burning questions and, in doing so, gauging the brainpower of the man who three-quarters of voters now say they would like to see replaced before the election.
The interview, recorded in the key northern state of Wisconsin where Mr Biden is campaigning on Friday, should only last around twenty minutes, according to leaks to some media outlets.
ABC was chosen by the White House because of its high ratings and the image of impartiality it projects, the New York Times reported. The first excerpts are expected to be released at 6:30 p.m. Friday on ABC’s “World News Tonight.” The interview will air in its entirety at 8 p.m.
Mr. Stephanopoulos, 63, is used to high-stakes face-to-face meetings. He has interviewed Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Vladimir Putin.
But Friday will be at the forefront of questions about Joe Biden’s health, which have become more prevalent in recent days. After appearing stammering and losing his train of thought when facing Donald Trump, the president will have to prove that he is not so much worn down by the weight of his 81 years.
formidable interviewer
Born to parents of Greek origin in Fall River, a small town in Massachusetts, George Stephanopoulos grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. His father was a leader of the American Orthodox clergy and his mother also held responsibilities within this Church.
After graduating from the prestigious Columbia University in New York, he moved to Washington and began working as a congressional assistant. He rediscovered this dual connection with Greece and Massachusetts by getting involved in the 1988 campaign for the White House of Michael Dukakis, the governor of the state, who was of Greek origin. But George H. W. Bush won the election.
In the next presidential election, in 1992, George Stephanopoulos played a central role in Bill Clinton’s campaign, which was victorious this time. He became one of the Democratic president’s main advisers in the White House, even acting as his spokesperson.
Four years later, another turn: he resigned from the executive and therefore did not accompany Bill Clinton in his second term, marked by the Lewinsky affair. In a book published in 1999, the advisor confided in his depression and the pressure he was under to speak on behalf of the president.
But the man bounced back as a political pundit on ABC, where he became the respected figure of two flagships of the program schedule: the morning show “Good Morning America” and the Sunday talk show “This Week.”
Pizza from “Friends”
The journalist with the always neatly combed salt-and-pepper hair is now rich and famous.
In an episode of “Friends,” the heroes of this globally successful series receive a pizza delivery that is actually intended for George Stephanopoulos. This delivery error sends the entire household into a frenzy.
But Friday will be a serious time between Mr. Biden and Mr. Stephanopoulos. In March 2021, before the Russian offensive in Ukraine, a previous one-on-one interview had caused a stir.
In it, George Stephanopoulos asks Mr. Biden: “So you know Vladimir Putin. Do you think he’s a killer?” “Hmm,” says a trapped Joe Biden, who adds after a second of hesitation: “Yes.” The Kremlin had reacted very irritably.
Donald Trump, who is also engaged in a legal battle with ABC and its star journalist, raised the possibility that Mr. Stephanopoulos might choose to conduct a “promotional” interview by making public “only the few coherent answers” from the Democratic president.
Referring to him as “Slopadopoulos,” Trump on Thursday called the journalist a “short, angry man” and “the lowest, most malicious interviewer in existence.”