In a move surprising to almost no one, President Joe Biden is declining to participate in the tradition of the presidential Super Bowl interview.
What did surprise some, however, was the ferocity with which Biden’s team reacted when Donald Trump lightheartedly suggested taking Biden’s place.
As reported by NBC News, Biden is skipping the traditional presidential Super Bowl interview, “[fo]r the second year in a row.”
His aides defend this decision as part of a “larger communication strategy,” but knowing Biden’s propensity to forget what words are, most of us can probably guess at the real reason.
Either way, Biden’s aides contend that it’s only because “many voters … simply want to tune into the game. And that seeing the president pop up while waiting for kickoff might turn them off.”
That said, not even Democrats are satisfied with this flimsy excuse, with a veteran Democratic campaign operative telling NBC, “Either he doesn’t have anything to say or his team is worried about what he might say or how he’d say it. Regardless, it’s a problem.”
Here is where Trump came in. On Truth social, he threw his hat into the ring, saying “Crooked Joe Biden has just announced that he will not be doing the big Super Bowl Interview. A great decision, he can’t put two sentences together. I WOULD BE HAPPY TO REPLACE HIM – would be ‘RATINGS GOLD!’”
Clearly, this is a lighthearted jab, Trump riffing off what everyone with two eyes and functioning ears already knows about Joe Biden — that, given three minutes to speak, at least one of those minutes will be a stream of unadulterated nonsense.
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As is typical of those on the radical left, however, Biden’s team did not care to see the humor, instead retaliating with a vitriol that would alarm all but the most unhinged Trump haters.
Biden Communications director, Michael Tyler, decided to publicly response to Trump’s proposal in the harshest words possible, saying, “First of all, these offers are only for presidents — not for the loser. Second of all, no one tuning in to watch football this Sunday wants to hear Donald Trump say a damn thing about anything.”
Even NBC seemed to imply this response was uncalled for, mentioning how “Biden has participated in far fewer interviews compared with his predecessors. Since becoming president, he has done 86 interviews, versus 300 for Trump and 422 for Barack Obama at this point in their presidencies.”
First of all, of course Trump knows that CBS (who would be giving the interview this year) would never take him up on his offer. His comment was obviously tongue-in-cheek, Trump taking a golden opportunity to remind the world of Biden’s linguistic deficiencies.
Second of all, who wouldn’t expect Trump to take advantage of an opportunity to reiterate how popular he is with the average American.
And besides, Trump has packed stadiums filled with folks who would beg to differ with Tyler’s statements.
But regardless of whether or not Tyler’s statements are true, they were incredibly unprofessional and unnecessary.
At this point, almost everyone has heard the advice offered when dealing with offensive and semi-literate internet comments: Don’t feed the trolls.
Trump is certainly not a troll, but seeing as the left seems to regard him as such, you would think they would recognize that giving him this negative attention only strengthens the convictions of Trump and his followers.
Still, Tyler’s response is telling. Biden’s team knows they need to minimize Biden’s speech time as much as possible, if he wants a prayer of making it in the election. They know the chances of a Biden gaffe are high, which probably explains at least some of the venom in Tyler’s response.
It’s not Trump’s fault that Biden lacks the charisma of his mentor Barack Obama.
And reacting so violently to a joke like that will only strengthen the resolve of Trump and his supporters.
