In a first for a sitting President, Donald Trump is personally attending today’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, where he will revive the tradition of Presidents giving a game day interview to the host network, something the elderly Joe Biden skipped last year. Trump is scheduled to sit down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier during the 3pm ET hour, and he’s sure to take questions about the enormous changes he’s brought to Washington in just the past three weeks.
Even though Biden refused to participate in 2024, the Super Bowl interview has provided a huge audience and a friendly forum for Democratic Presidents. Four years ago, for example, Biden sat down with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell just a couple of weeks into his administration. O’Donnell refused to press the President, tossing softballs instead.
“So many people might not know, that you were once a pretty good receiver yourself back in the day,” she gushed. Her follow-up was equally tough: “As a former receiver, which quarterback would you rather have throw to you? Tom Brady or Mahomes?”
In 2016, CBS’s Gayle King sat down with both Barack and Michelle Obama. “When I think about the Obamas, even your dates make national news. They become news stories,” King gushed.
She wondered: “When you’re at the Super Bowl party at the Obama house, do you watch the commercials? Do you care about the commercials?”
A year earlier, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie mixed a few tough questions with the ritual fawning. “We are in the White House kitchen where, among other things, you brew beer!” she excitedly relayed. Obama quipped: “Savannah, enjoy the beer. You should finish it before our full interview, it’ll make it go smoother.”
Guthrie made sure to ask about scandals, just not the Democrats’ scandals: “Have you been following Deflategate and do you have an opinion about whether the Patriots cheated?”
In 2009, NBC’s Matt Lauer saluted Obama’s victory: “Not only did you just become President, obviously that carries a certain amount of fame with it. But you have achieved a certain rock-star status outside of that.”
He also sounded like a worried brother as he asked the then-new President about how his young daughters were adjusting: “This is a huge game-changer for them as well. How they doing?...Are you there for breakfast? Do you get to read them a story at night, tuck them in bed? How’s it going?”
Viewers shouldn’t expect Baier to be rude or obnoxious when he talks with President Trump, but don’t expect him to skip the obvious hard news questions, either. That’s as it should be, of course — the real offense is when liberal journalists waste viewers’ time by tossing softballs to Democratic Presidents.
For more examples from our flashback series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.
