Cockburn can’t help but tune into the late-night shows. On Wednesday night, he was spoiled rotten: President Joe Biden showed up on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, kicking off a West Coast tour to revive his declining popularity. While the audience applause lasted more than a minute upon his arrival, Cockburn wasn’t quite impressed with the interview.
From the start, it was clear Kimmel would carry the show like a pack mule, clarifying Biden’s points and continually asking questions that led the president towards easy answers, along with the occasional jab at Trump and Fox News. Kimmel kicked off proceedings by asking: “Do you mind if I ask you some serious questions?”
They started off with gun violence and continued into how bad Republicans are. Biden claimed that he wanted to avoid issuing several executive orders because he did not want to “emulate Trump’s abuse of the constitution” and said that Republicans “don’t play it square.” He followed up by suggesting he might use executive orders to deal with the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court: “I think what we’re gonna to do — is some executive orders I could employ — we’re looking at that right now.”
Kimmel then compared Republicans to cheaters in Monopoly. When asked what to do with such people, Biden joked, “Send them to jail.” There’s that bipartisan president we were all promised!
On inflation, Biden had words to say. “Inflation is the bane of our existence. Inflation is mostly in food and in at the gasoline — at the pump.” Biden then proposed to make healthcare “cheaper,” which will shift the cost from the person directly buying the medication to taxpayers themselves, thinning their wallets further on services they may not particularly need. It’s like paying a public-school tax despite already sending a son or daughter to a private school.
“This all makes perfect sense,” said Jimmy. “The fact that this makes sense is why it doesn’t make sense and why it seems so crazy.”
“Americans aren’t as knowledgeable as they should be,” Kimmel continued, before decrying the “Death Star pumping false information into our brains.”
To which the president giddily replied “Fox, right?”
Later, Kimmel asked Biden on why he was so optimistic because “it makes no sense.” Biden’s response was almost coherent:
Look at the young people, best educated, least prejudiced, most giving generation in American history. Turn on the TV, look at the ads, when was the last time you saw biracial couples on TV… people are selling products — they appeal to people.
There’s a lot of major things we’ve done, but what we haven’t done is we haven’t been able to communicate it…but look how the press has changed.
Imagine doing so many major positive things that nobody talks about any. How frustrating that must be.
Biden goes on:
It’s very difficult now to have an even — with notable exceptions — even with really good reporters, they have to get a number of clicks on nightly news… Everything gets sensationalized.
Biden suggests that his negative press is a result of clickbait-induced slanders, that the press are desperate for controversy and therefore treating the government unfairly. Cockburn wonders if the president’s view of how the media covered his predecessor is equally charitable.
One Jimmy Kimmel soundbite sums up the interview better than Cockburn ever could: “We’re looking hard for the good things, and we’re glad you’re looking hard for the good things too.” That truly exemplifies the relationship between the press and Joe Biden.
