As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has held few public events while hosting a lot of virtual events.
However, as President Donald Trump has ramped up his attacks on Biden, he has suggested that the former vice president has not been doing many national TV interviews because he would not be able to handle it.
On Sunday, CNN’s Brian Stelter pressed Biden campaign National Press Secretary T. J. Ducklo on the low number of interviews compared to Trump.
He noted that from June through July, Biden conducted 15 interviews while Trump sat for at least 30 interviews during that same time period.
He asked Ducklo, “Shouldn’t you be providing Biden to the press more often?”
“Well, we had a press conference this week,” Ducklo responded. “And since March 1st, Vice President has done nearly 100 interviews with every network including Fox News.”
Ducklo also took a shot at Trump’s interviews and said that many of them have been with outlets that tend to have more favorable coverage of his administration.
But, Stelter went on to note that during an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Trump claimed Biden would be “on the ground crying for mommy” if he sat through a tough interview.
Stelter asked why Biden is not doing more interviews and press conferences to “prove [Trump] wrong.”
“Look what [Trump] said to Chris Wallace a couple weeks ago. He said ‘let Biden sit through an interview like this, he’ll be on the ground crying for mommy.’ Biden did do an interview on MSNBC the next day, so the idea that Biden can’t do an interview is a lie. But he’s going to keep lying. He’s going to keep saying it for three more months, so why not prove him wrong every day by having daily press conferences and giving daily interviews?”
Watch the video below:
National Press Secretary for the Biden Campaign @TDucklo responds to the criticism Biden has faced on his lack of interviews with the press: Since March 1, "Biden has done nearly 100 interviews with every network." pic.twitter.com/rW2VWJvVs0
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) August 2, 2020
Ducklo countered by noting that Trump has done interviews with a much smaller circle of outlets than Biden.
While Stelter said the decision to limit Biden’s press availability is “an effective campaign strategy,” he said, “I just think that Biden owes the public access all the time, even in the midst of a pandemic.”
“I think we are, absolutely. And I think we are drawing a contrast for folks, that this election is a choice,” Ducklo responded.
He added, “It is a choice between two candidates. Joe Biden is the polar opposite of Donald Trump in every way and his experience, in his character, in his empathy. We are drawing that contrast.”
Stelter is not the only host to suggest that Biden should conduct more interviews, as IJR reported.
Fox News’ Chris Wallace said it is an “open question” whether Biden can “handle himself” during an interview, he added, “Yet you gotta feel at some point he’s going to come out from the basement … he’s going to have to be more exposed and take questions just as tough as I asked this president,