Biden’s ABC Interview Was a Necessary Appointment With the Public — and a Botched One

variety.com:

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic President Joe Biden still has an easy and telegenic smile. And, for a flickering moment in his interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos — aired as a 30-minute special Friday night after having been taped earlier that day — that covered for a lot.

The commander-in-chief is in the midst of an unremittingly brutal press cycle following his performance in the June 27 CNN debate against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

That TV appearance was an opportunity he never should have taken. The format did him no favors in the first place, and Biden’s mien made clear that even the moderators fact-checking in real time (as CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash did not do) would not have saved him.

This second press appearance, a 22-minute interview that ABC aired without edits or interruption, was less an opportunity to clear the air than a necessary appointment — and a deferred one, at that, coming eight days after his soft-spoken, diffident, and confusing responses to an eminently fact-checkable Trump, dissembling and outright lying without a proper response, plunged his campaign into chaos.