President Biden plans to again adhere to the White House tradition of doing a Super Bowl pregame interview.
The interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt, slated to be recorded in Virginia on Thursday, will be Mr. Biden’s first sit-down talk with a news outlet in 2022.
Portions of the interview will air Thursday evening during “NBC Nightly News.” The rest will air Sunday before the Los Angeles Rams take on the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.
The Super Bowl interview tradition got kicked off by President George W. Bush in 2004 but he didn’t do another one during his second term. President Barack Obama made it an annual event.
A litany of network personalities across the airwaves — including Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Savannah Guthrie, Scott Pelley and Matt Lauer — have interviewed presidents before the Super Bowl in recent years.
Mr. Biden sat down with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell last year before the Super Bowl LV.
Mr. Holt was scheduled to interview former President Donald Trump for the Super Bowl in 2018, but Mr. Trump declined to take part in the interview. At the time, Mr. Trump was criticized for his remarks about Black football players taking a knee during the national anthem at football games and likely would have faced questions about it in the interview.
Mr. Biden’s last sit-down interview with a network occurred in August when he faced questions from ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos about the bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan.
This time, Mr. Biden will likely be pressed on several issues including a potential Russian attack against Ukraine, his Supreme Court nominee, rising inflation, COVID-19 and, of course, the football game.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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