Mr. Biden is also well acquainted with Mr. Stephanopoulos, who has conducted dozens of interviews with him throughout his career as a senator, as vice president and finally as president. Mr. Stephanopoulos last interviewed Mr. Biden at the White House in August 2021, when the president faced intense criticism in the aftermath of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Now Mr. Stephanopoulos, a star anchor and a former Democratic strategist who helped oversee Bill Clinton’s messaging in the 1990s, has the delicate task of pressing the commander in chief on intimate questions of aging, physical decline and what exactly transpired under the lights of the debate stage, where Mr. Biden repeatedly lost his train of thought, stared agape at his opponent and struggled to convey simple political arguments.
Mr. Stephanopoulos has spent the last few days preparing for the interview before he flies to Wisconsin, where Mr. Biden is making a campaign stop on Friday. The executive producer of “Good Morning America,” Simone Swink, and the political director of ABC News, Rick Klein, are expected to be present for the taping, according to one person familiar with the plans.
Mr. Stephanopoulos, who joined ABC in 1997, will inevitably face scrutiny of his own. Will his questions be viewed as too soft and sympathetic, or too harsh and callous? What level of candor will he be able to elicit from Mr. Biden in the time allotted?
Already, some right-wing websites have peddled conspiracy theories that, because the interview is not airing live, ABC could selectively edit and reframe Mr. Biden’s answers. ABC initially said that it would air the interview in full on Sunday morning’s episode of “This Week.” But hours later, the network changed course, announcing that the unedited interview would air on Friday in prime-time instead.
Kaynak: briturkish.com
