President Biden will sit down with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle for his first interview with a major TV network since Feb. 8.
The interview will discuss Mr. Biden’s infrastructure agenda, his reelection bid and the debt ceiling, MSNBC said in a press release. It will air Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern time.
Mr. Biden’s last interview with a major network was with Judy Woodruff on the Public Broadcasting Service “NewsHour” show.
The president has faced criticism for not doing more interviews or press conferences. As of April, Mr. Biden had given the fewest interviews of any president since Ronald Reagan.
In his first two years, Mr. Biden has granted 54 interviews. President Barack Obama gave 275 interviews in that span, while President Donald Trump did 202, according to data from the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Mr. Biden has also averaged only 10 news conferences per year during his time in office, while Mr. Trump averaged 19.5 and Mr. Obama averaged 23.
The lack of media access to the president is public evidence that Mr. Biden’s strategists are trying to avoid unscripted exchanges that have often been marked by gaffes, blunders and forgetfulness.
That strategy may have to change as Mr. Biden seeks a second term. Starting with MSNBC, which has been friendly to his administration, could be a way to ease the president into more interviews.
The interview Friday will be Mr. Biden’s first since announcing his reelection bid. After a spate of troubling public appearances in which he stumbled over sentences, mispronounced words and struggled to answer softball questions from children, he has had a limited public schedule.
His last public event was Monday. The only item on his agenda Friday before the MSNBC appearance is a meeting with a few Cabinet officials.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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