Former Vice President Joe Biden sat for a quick interview Tuesday with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, who used their short time together to lob the world’s easiest softballs at the man who hopes one day to be the leader of the free world.
Seriously, though. Is anyone going to ask Biden a tough question? The 2020 Democratic candidate has coasted through a handful of embarrassingly friendly news interviews recently, and it is only getting easier for him.
Baldwin’s conversation with Biden was short. She had time to ask only four questions. However, rather than make every second count and ask the presidential candidate serious and prodding questions about his campaign, the COVID-19 pandemic, and what he would do differently were he the chief executive, Baldwin squandered what little time they had to set the former vice president up with easy partisan questions to knock down like bowling pins.
And, oh boy, what questions they were. They were as follows:
“Should all 50 states issues stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of this thing?”
She asked if the president is “intentionally” misleading the public about the COVID-19 pandemic to “paint a rosier picture.”
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi … said that she believes the president’s failure to act early on cost American lives. That is a bold accusation. Mr. Vice President, do you think President Trump is responsible for the deaths of Americans?”
And then there is the final question, which is also my personal favorite:
“Your strength, really, your strength is in traveling around the country and connecting with people, right?” Baldwin asked. “Connecting with voters, looking them in the eye, a hug, a handshake, especially in these crucial months before the election, and you can’t do any of that right now.”
“Mr. Vice President, does that worry you?” she added.
Biden’s answer: “No, it doesn’t worry me. The thing that worries me is whether we get this under control.”
Unsurprisingly, Baldwin did not ask Biden any questions about the sexual assault allegations that have been brought against him by one of his former Senate staffers because that is apparently a topic that the same news media that printed every whisper and rumor about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh does not want to go near.
For all the talk recently about how brave and unflinching the news media is in the face of power, it is sort of amazing to see members of the press revert back to playing the role of subservient lackey to politicians who align with them both culturally and politically. All that tough talk about holding Trump and his allies’ feet to the fire was never about holding the powerful to account. It was always about resisting one specific politician and his brand of politics. The moment a “normal” politician with the “correct” views is voted into the White House, news organizations such as CNN will go back into hibernation mode.
Baldwin’s interview with Biden Tuesday afternoon is merely a sneak peak into what that will look like.
