Joe Biden is Not a Television Personality

AP Photo/Alex Brandon; AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

President Joe Biden is not a television personality.

Sure, he’s a public personality born from a lifetime of civil service — comfortable in front of large groups and television cameras. But he doesn’t naturally think like a television host, producer or scriptwriter.

This starkly contrasts former President Donald Trump, of course — who didn’t become a national star or household name until later in his career when he hosted The Apprentice, then Celebrity Apprentice. Trump’s been largely derided by his critics as little more than a reality game show host, but there is no denying he’s a very talented television host, producer, and/or “scriptwriter.”

And in that comparison alone, President Biden fails.

Now, depending on where you sit on the spectrum of appreciating a duty to serve the people who elected you and those who embrace naked political theater, that failure also vacillates from a very good thing to a very bad thing, respectively. And while this observation might seem trivial and self-evident, it’s getting remarkably lost in an ongoing conversation surrounding the 2024 general election.

The showmanship, or “carnival barker” gap became ever more clear during Biden’s first big public interview he’s done in some time — his Monday evening appearance for the 10th anniversary of Late Show With Seth Meyers.

As I explained on News Nation’s Morning in America, his appearance had something for everyone on that aforementioned spectrum. If you are convinced he is too old for public service and cannot get out of his own way, then you saw evidence of that, particularly in the awkward first segment with Dark Brandon glasses and a canned bit with Amy Poehler.  I called it “cringe,” and yeah, watching it made me feel awkward.

Later in the interview, however, Biden comfortably addressed concerns about his age, aggressively attacked Trump’s “dictator” ways, and showed impressive command of everything from the economy to a complicated set of issues at play in the Israel-Hamas war.

In a normal, pre-Trump era, Biden’s appearance would have been largely well-received. We didn’t expect to be wowed or entertained by our leaders. But following Trump’s always-on and performative TV personality? Biden’s boring predictability feels flat. And herein lies the rub.

Biden was elected because, for many, he promised to return the White House to a pre-Trump sense of normalcy and decorum. No, he doesn’t do many, if any, press conferences, which understandably gets criticized. But he also doesn’t insult reporters by calling them stupid for asking tough questions.

That was Trump’s schtick, and whether you found him to be the hero or heel (following the pro wrestling kayfabe trope), the political mediasphere was wildly entertained. And we still are!

We cannot get enough of Trump’s crazy, which he knows full well and continues to ration out in giant ladles to many opinion media types imprisoned by his every next and unhinged move.

Biden doesn’t do any of this, which is a good thing for an ailing body politic, but none of it helps sell soap on cable news prime time as the 45th president did.

And that’s the challenge that the nation — in particular, cable news programmers, personalities, and pundits — have to face.

When it comes to dealing with the media, Joe Biden had enormous shoes to fill following Trump. Clown shoes.

The fact that they don’t fit is as much a blessing as it is a curse.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.