Joe Biden visited Howard Stern‘s SiriusXM show today, the latest interview that the president has given to a non-traditional media outlet.
Biden sat down with Stern at his midtown Manhattan studio for a live interview.
Stern started the interview by talking with Biden about his upbringing, as well as his time as a public defender, per a pool report. They also got deeply personal, as Biden talked of his experience coping with grief after the death of his wife and daughter in an auto accident in 1972.
Later. Stern said that he wanted Biden to debate Donald Trump. “I am, somewhere, I don’t know when but I am happy to debate him,” the president said.
Trump has challenged Biden to debate, an event that has traditionally been held in the fall general election campaign.
Biden has been in the area, having headlined a fundraiser on Thursday evening at the home of Michael Douglas.
Biden’s interviews with non-journalists — he recently sat for the Smartless podcast along with former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — have rankled traditional news outlets. Following a Politico article on the tiff between the White House and The New York Times, the Times put out a statement in which it said that it was “troubling that President Biden has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term. The president occupies the most important office in our nation, and the press plays a vital role in providing insights into his thinking and worldview, allowing the public to assess his record and hold him to account.”
Stern’s sit down with Biden was a surprise, as it was not on the White House public schedule until just minutes before it started. This also is Stern’s first interview with a sitting president.
