Deadline.com is rounding up "smart" foreign observers to comment on the 2024 election, and Jake Kanter talked to French reporter Kéthévane Gorjestani, who spent time in America as president of the White House Foreign Press Group, meaning she attempted to gain access to Hidin' Joe Biden. While Trump engaged reporters "all the time," Gorestani says, gee, the feeling among reporters was that Biden's handlers were "more reluctant to engage." You think?
She thinks that's a mistake. "Let Joe be Joe!"
Gorjestani explains: “At least part of his team is trying to shield him from making a mistake or saying something that makes news that they don’t want him to say. But there’s also a wide agreement among reporters that Joe Biden is never as good as when he’s off the cuff. It comes with its risks, but all leaders have these risks when they sit down for interviews or press conferences.”
“You look at the State of the Union, all the unscripted moments where he’s responding to heckling from the Republicans, that is the best response to the criticism or the concerns about his age,” Gorjestani adds. “He’s more than capable to engage with antagonistic calls and questions — and he’s good at it.”
There's a "wide agreement among reporters" that Biden's great at "unscripted moments." Does that mean Joe had them at 'Hello'? From their lack of public complaints, we can suspect that many pro-Biden reporters are fine with keeping Joe under wraps, if that's what it takes to defeat Trump.
Gorjestani was born in Washington D.C. and is a French-American, though she's originally from Georgia. She's reported for the French state-backed news network France 24 since 2010, spending four years as a correspondent in Washington. Gorjestani recently moved back to Paris, where she now serves as France 24’s foreign affairs correspondent, but she says she still keeps a close eye on America.
Gorjestani says the French are somewhat bemused by the U.S. election. “How is it possible that a country like the United States cannot come up with a better choice than two old guys that nobody wants,” she says, surmising the mood among her fellow nationals.
