During an interview with likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden, conducted on Monday and aired Tuesday morning on NBC’s 3rd Hour Today show, co-host Craig Melvin teed up the 2020 presidential candidate to criticize the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Missing from the softball exchange was any mention of Biden attacking the President’s China travel ban in January that has been credited with slowing the spread.
“We also learned late Monday afternoon that Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden spoke with President Trump....they say that Biden offered some suggestions to the President,” Melvin declared at the top of the 9:00 a.m. ET hour segment. He noted that the interview with Biden occurred “A few hours before that phone call” and that they “talked about the White House response to the coronavirus,” among other topics.
“Mr. Vice president, right off the top here, if you were sitting in the Oval Office right now, what kinds of things would you be doing that this administration so far has not done?,” Melvin asked as he began the friendly exchange. Biden predictably replied: “Well, look, the coronavirus is not his fault, but I’d accept responsibility....I’d move a lot more swiftly, I’d not be pushing the responsibility off on others.”
Speaking of accepting responsibility, Melvin never asked if Biden was wrong to denounce Trump’s ban on travel from China in the early days of the crisis. On January 31, the former Vice President ranted at an Iowa campaign event: “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia.”
Instead, Melvin urged Biden to defend the Obama administration’s record on preparing the nation for a possible future pandemic: “It’s been nearly four years since the last presidential election, but on Sunday, we did hear the President blaming a broken system, he blamed his predecessors, in part, for the response heretofore. What do you make of that?”
Biden accepted the open-ended invitation to say whatever he wanted:
Well, you should talk to his own people. I guess they can’t talk on the record, they’ll get fired, but we made them aware of what was in place, we made them aware of the things we had done, what we anticipated might occur. The President, to the best of my knowledge, did not think very much of that or didn’t think it was very high on the agenda, did not keep the CDC folks abroad if we had to anticipate when we’d see something from another country occurring, so we could see it on the spot. I don’t think there’s much to the assertion.
Later in the conversation, Melvin touted how Biden was planning to select a woman as his vice presidential running mate: “You did make some headlines a few weeks ago when you said that your number two would likely be a female....Likely a female of color.”
However, like the rest of his liberal media colleagues, the NBC anchor refused to ask a single question about former staffer Tara Reade accusing Biden of sexual misconduct.
As he draws closer to officially obtaining the Democratic nomination for president, Biden seems guaranteed to get nothing but easy media interviews that completely ignore his controversies.
Here is a transcript of Melvin’s questions to Biden during the interview aired on April 7:
9:05 AM ET
CRAIG MELVIN: We also learned late Monday afternoon that Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden spoke with President Trump. Both sides describe it as a good call and they say that Biden offered some suggestions to the President. A few hours before that phone call, I had the chance to talk to the former Vice President. We talked about the White House response to the coronavirus, the race for the nomination, and what happens if it’s not safe for Americans to head to the polls come November.
Mr. Vice president, right off the top here, if you were sitting in the Oval Office right now, what kinds of things would you be doing that this administration so far has not done?
JOE BIDEN: Well, look, the coronavirus is not his fault, but I’d accept responsibility. This is a national problem, it’s not a local problem, it’s not a governors’ problem. I’d move a lot more swiftly, I’d not be pushing the responsibility off on others.
(...)
9:06 AM ETMELVIN: It’s been nearly four years since the last presidential election, but on Sunday, we did hear the President blaming a broken system, he blamed his predecessors, in part, for the response heretofore. What do you make of that?
BIDEN: Well, you should talk to his own people. I guess they can’t talk on the record, they’ll get fired, but we made them aware of what was in place, we made them aware of the things we had done, what we anticipated might occur. The President, to the best of my knowledge, did not think very much of that or didn’t think it was very high on the agenda, did not keep the CDC folks abroad if we had to anticipate when we’d see something from another country occurring, so we could see it on the spot. I don’t think there’s much to the assertion.
MELVIN: What happens in this country if it’s not safe to vote in person by November 3rd?
BIDEN: We’re going to have to conduct the election on November 3rd.
(...)
9:08 AM ET
MELVIN: Your delegate lead, at last check, was somewhere around 313. Most experts believe that’s insurmountable. I know that you’ve talked to Senator Sanders recently by phone. Did you suggest to him that it was time to get out of this thing?
(...)
MELVIN: You did make some headlines a few weeks ago when you said that your number two would likely be a female.
BIDEN: Yes.
MELVIN: Likely a female of color.
(...)
9:09 AM ET
MELVIN: Did Senator Sanders provide input on a possible VP pick?
(...)
9:10 AM ET
MELVIN: Senator Biden there, again that call happening yesterday afternoon. And he said just a few minutes after our interview, that was when he had his call with the White House.
AL ROKER: And, Craig, I understand – it was a great interview, by the way – that he picked up, he picked a major endorsement this morning.
MELVIN: He did. In fact, Georgia Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis endorsed Joe Biden, he called him a man of courage. Mr. Biden told me on yesterday that Lewis is one of his personal heroes and that his support – that John Lewis’s support makes him even more certain that he should be running for president
SHEINELLE JONES: I’m curious if Biden had anything to say about those governors who haven’t called for a stay-at-home order?
MELVIN: In short, yes. He said they all should. He stopped short of saying that the President should issue a national stay-at-home order, but he did say that all of the governors who have not done so, should, in fact, order their residents to stay home.
