Biden campaign defends his decision to skip Super Bowl interview (2024)

Joe Biden isn't doing the traditional presidential pre-Super Bowl interview – with his team insisting this is to allow viewers to focus on football instead of 'hearing from a politician.'

Despite this, the president released a message on X where he slammed 'shrinkflation' in popular snack foods in a pessimistic Super Bowl Sunday message.

'If you're anything like me, you like to be surrounded by a snack or two while watching the big game,' Biden said in a 48-second video that appeared to be shot in the White House family theater before adding: 'When buying snacks for the game, you might have noticed one thing – portion sizes are smaller… they're still charging just as much.'

The video was released just after Biden's campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu told NBC News that the president didn't want to appear on the air waves before the Super Bowl to allow people a break from politics when watching football.

'Was it a mistake for him not to do the Super Bowl interview, to miss talking to as many as 60 million people?' Meet the Press host Kristen Welker asked Landrieu in a Sunday morning interview.

'No, I don't think so,' he replied. 'I think people really want to watch the Super Bowl tonight and think about football.'

'They don't want to hear from a politician. So I think he made the right choice for himself at this time,' Landrieu added.

Biden's message on 'shrinkflation', however, didn't resonate with Republicans on X, formerly Twitter, who say the president is to blame for inflation, rising prices and companies shrinking their products to cut their costs.

Far-right outlet Conservative Brief posted in response to Biden's message: 'In probably the most bizarre thing you'll see this Super Bowl Sunday, Joe Biden does commercial complaining about the economic situation he himself created!'

'Joe Biden couldn't do a Super Bowl interview because it would have been passed (sic) his bedtime, but he did have time to post a propaganda video hoping you won't realize shrinkflation is a result of inflation courtesy of Bidenomics,' radio host Jason Rantz posted.

Steven Hasty wrote: 'My response to the President - shrinkflation is real, but it's a result of Bidenomics.'

Biden, 81, decided to skip the traditional sit-down interview ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl for a second time.

The president facing a tough reelection battle is snubbing an interview with CBS, the network broadcasting this year's big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.

Variety first reported on the White House 's decision, with communications director Ben LaBolt telling the outlet, 'We hope viewers enjoy watching what they tuned in for - the game,' providing no further explanation.

Last year's declination for an interview was attributed to the fact that conservative-leaning Fox News was airing the game and therefore requesting he sit down with them beforehand.

During 2021 and 2022 Biden participated in the Q&As, first with CBS' Norah O'Donnell and then NBC's Lester Holt.

Former President Donald Trump skipped a pre-game interview too - though spent his early months in office battling the NFL over some players' decisions to kneel during the playing of the national anthem, protesting racial inequality.

Now a candidate for the White House again, Trump indicated he would play ball and do the interview once more.

'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,' Trump commented on Truth Social Monday. 'I WOULD BE HAPPY TO REPLACE HIM - would be 'RATINGS GOLD!'' the ex-president and 2024 hopeful said.

Later in an interview with conservative podcaster Dan Bongino, Trump reiterated the offer.

'He can't do it because he can't talk,' Trump said of the president's refusal.'I'll take his spot at the Super Bowl if they want, we'll get very good ratings,' the ex-president added.

Overall, Biden has shied away from media exposure, opting to answer questions from reporters in less formal settings - such as when he exits the White House to board Marine One on the South Lawn.

He didn't participate in a year-end press conference in 2023 - and seldom sits down for television or print interviews.

Biden's last two television interviews were alongside first lady Jill Biden and were with Al Roker during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and with Ryan Seacrest for his New Year's Eve program.

Before that, his most recent substantial sit-down was a 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley, which aired in mid-October.

Biden participated in 86 interviews during his first three years in office, according to numbers compiled by Martha Kumar, an emeritus political science professor at Towson University, who studies White House communications.

That's compared to 300 interviews that Trump participated in and 422 that President Barack Obama did during their first three years in the White House.

With sluggish polls and the Republican primary wrapping up, with former President Donald Trump the likely GOP nominee, some Democrats are worried that Biden playing it safe won't be enough.

'He's probably trying to avoid tough questions on Gaza and the border, but I think he's making a mistake,' one Democratic strategist told DailyMail.com, who declined to be named.

'This should be an opportunity for him to hammer House Republicans for blocking aid to Israel and tanking a bipartisan immigration deal,' the source adde. 'He needs to be playing offense because he won't be able to campaign from the basem*nt again.'

Other Democrats didn't view it as a missed opportunity.

'There are three kind of people who watch the Super Bowl. Those who care about the actual game, those who care about the commercials and those who care about the halftime show. I have yet to meet the audience that cares about the presidential interview,' pointed outDemocratic strategist Rodell Mollineau, a partner at Rokk Solutions.

Biden, however, is potentially missing out on an even bigger voting bloc this year by skipping the interview.

While there's always huge interest in the Super Bowl, this year's game will also attract legions of 'Swifties' as Taylor Swift's boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, will be on the field, and she's expected to attend.

Swift jumped into politics in 2018, endorsing Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn's Democratic opponent Phil Bredesen in Tennessee.

She publicly backed Biden in 2020.

Allies of Trump are already fretting about her endorsing Biden in 2024 now that Swift has reached mega-stardom.

Rolling Stone reported last week that MAGA world is preparing a 'holy war' against the pop star.

Fox News host Jesse Watters floated last month that Swift was a 'front for a covert political agenda.'

He said on his primetime show that 'around four years ago, the Pentagon's phychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset.'

Pentagon spokespersonSabrina Singh responded to the wild claim by saying in a statement, 'as for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off.'

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy - who dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump - floated on X in late January that the Super Bowl will be rigged in the Chiefs' favor to aid Biden's reelection effort.

'I wonder who's going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there's a major presidential endorsem*nt coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,' Ramaswamy mused. 'Just some wild speculation over here, let's see how it ages over the next 8 months.'