“The View” co-hosts debated Friday whether President Joe Biden should be interviewed by Fox News during the Super Bowl.
Co-host Joy Behar said it is a “problem” that the Sunday game is set to air on Fox, accusing “those people over there at Fox” of denying that Biden won the 2020 election and of “saying [Biden’s] a liar when they’re the liars.” Fox News called the 2020 election for Biden, and outlets like The New York Times and Washington Post have documented multiple falsehoods from the president.
Variety notes that a pre-Super Bowl presidential interview “has been a staple of the event (more or less) since President Barack Obama started doing it in 2009.”
“I don’t think he should,” co-host Sunny Hostin said. “I know that it’s a tradition. This pre-interview would only get about 20 million viewers, I think he got something like 27.3 [million] for the State of the Union. So, people have seen him they’ve heard him, and I don’t think you normalize the misinformation network.”
“I have trouble believing he should sit down even with a Shannon Bream or even with a Bret Baier, because the bottom line is, they work for a network that puts forth conspiracy theories, they’re election deniers … this is just constant. And basically, Fox viewers are more willing to embrace conspiracy theories around COVID,” Hostin added.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin took a different approach, arguing that the president has a duty to represent all Americans, including Fox viewers. She recommended that Fox News anchor Bret Baier interview Biden due to his track record of interviews with liberal figures like former President Barack Obama.
“I totally disagree on this one,” she said. “I think the biggest thing wrong with our politics right now is people exist in their echo chambers. So, a lot of Fox viewers don’t even hear about things that Biden might have talked about on other networks. I think he ran saying he wants to be a president for all Americans. That includes Republicans. He should talk to them.” (RELATED: ‘The View’ Slams ‘Short-Sighted’ Elizabeth Warren For Fox News Snub)
Griffin also noted that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appears on Fox News regularly, and thus Biden can make an appearance.
Co-host Sara Haines agreed with Griffin that leaders should “go where people are,” argued that Biden has “more to lose than gain” by going on Fox.
All five co-hosts concluded that Biden is likely to break tradition by not participating in an interview with the network. “President Biden has not given Fox News an interview during the entirety of his presidency, and he shouldn’t start now,” Hostin said. “My bet is that he won’t because he hasn’t.”
Co-host Ana Navarro predicted an announcement sometime that day that the interview would not take place. Sure enough, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted just before noon on Friday that Biden “was looking forward to an interview” but that “Fox Corp has asked for the interview to be cancelled.”
In 2020, Fox News’ Sean Hannity was picked to interview former President Donald Trump during the Super Bowl, and Biden sat down with NBC News’ Lester Holt for the 2022 Super Bowl interview.