White House aides describe the strategy not so much as a delegation, but as a concerted effort to restore trust with an audience battered by the conflicting reports and scorched earth politics of the Trump years. In just over a week, the White House has booked 80 TV and radio interviews with 20 senior officials, members of the Covid-19 response team, and designated cabinet secretaries. They’ve had officials on every major network and they booked them on every Sunday show in the first week. And they are working with CNN to have three of the doctors responsible for the Covid-19 response answer questions from the public at a town hall about the coronavirus, said Mariel Sáez, the director of the White House broadcast media.
Who hasn’t been booked for sit-down interviews: Biden.
But the president was not exactly absent either. He appeared for short ceremonies where he signed executive orders and delivered mostly written comments. He has answered a handful of questions from the news media. And he is expected to deliver a major foreign policy speech on Monday during a planned trip to the State Department, his first visit to a cabinet office.
As the protagonists say, Biden’s role has remained relatively limited – a shocking contrast to the ubiquitous president who preceded him. Donald Trump didn’t like the spotlight so much, he tried to consume it completely. Whether sending Twitter screeds at hourly hours or shouting answers about the deafening blades of his presidential plane, Trump craved media attention like no U.S. leader before him.
Biden’s current approach is almost the antithesis. It also contrasts with how he operated earlier in his career. As a senator, he was known for his talkativeness. As a vice president, there was an ever-dormant fear in the White House that his tendency to freelance would trample on the message of the day (a fear that was often not realized).
Biden’s own White House aides are now as ubiquitous as he is, some perhaps even more so. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, economic adviser Brian Deese, and climate chiefs John Kerry and Gina McCarthy have already cycled through the White House briefing room to answer questions. Press Secretary Jen Psaki was noncommittal about when Biden might answer questions there, and offered that they are always looking for opportunities to do so. Trump brought in the cameras during his early tenure for his conversation with auto industry leaders, union leaders and workers. He did the same for speeches at the CIA and DHS, and traveled to Philadelphia for a televised address for the GOP Congressional retreat. While Biden hasn’t done a televised interview, Trump had conducted three at this point during his presidency.
‘He’s safe. He is not threatened by anyone else being in the spotlight, ”said Paul Begala, the veteran Democratic strategist, of Biden. In fact, I think he likes that. He shows the country that he has put together a truly talented and diverse team. “
During the presidential campaign, Biden changed his promise to hire and rely on experts in a weapon against Trump. And his advisers entered the transition, keenly aware of the history of presidents carrying too much of the burden. Jimmy Carter, the first president to be elected after Richard Nixon left office, was a poor delegator and was quickly seen as incapable of meeting the office’s demands.
“You can start with character, then you move to candor, compassion, all the things Trump was missing and what Biden and his team are talking about,” Begala said. “But then you really have to get things done. They seem to be very aware that simply not being Trump is no longer enough. “
Among those taking to the airwaves is White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, who is seen within the government as someone the public trusts in the pandemic. Klain has a large public messaging presence around Covid, with interviews and an active Twitter persona he has developed since managing the Obama administration’s Ebola response.
During that crisis, Klain himself discovered the importance of competent deputies. On days when public concern about the virus grew, he coined an acronym and emailed people “PTFOTV.” “Everyone in my office knew what PTFOTV stood for,” Klain told POLITICO last year. “It was ‘Put Tony Fauci on TV’.”
Fauci, who held high endorsements during Trump’s senior year, is now back in the role and is replaced by Klain again. And in his media renaissance, he has gone to great lengths to promote his liberation from Trump. “The idea that you can get up and talk about what you know, what the evidence is, what the science is,” said Fauci, “it’s kind of a liberating feeling.”
But that freedom brings complications for a government that simultaneously exposes many top officials and hopes they all stick to the same message. At an event on Thursday sponsored by the National Education Association, Fauci emphasized that Biden wants to maintain his goal of reopening most K-8 schools within its first 100 days. But Fauci added that it “may not happen because there may be extenuating circumstances,” a hypothetical scenario that the White House has avoided.
There is little doubt that whoever replaced Trump in the White House would keep his public statements more in line with historical standards. On Twitter alone, Biden has yet to announce something new, let alone reveal – as Trump often did – that he had fired a top aide or sunk his party’s congressional negotiations.
Silence can have its advantages. Former President Barack Obama went long distances without showing up in public, especially as Congress engaged in high-stakes negotiations. His assistants were eager to use him when his input would have the most impact. And they were also aware that Obama’s participation in a public debate could immediately polarize it – and give Republicans a handy political foil.
During his own campaign, Biden perfected the act of approachability, to the extent that the Democrats joked that he was part of an Avengers-esque ensemble rather than a solo act.
Some, including those close to Biden, say that while it’s not a driving factor, there is a generational component to his decision not to rush for attention. At 78, he is the oldest president in history. His technical knowledge is not regularly recommended. He has promised to be a bridge to a future generation of Democrats – who will appreciate all the attention he can give them.
One of those next-generation Democrats, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Recalls speaking to Biden privately after he dropped out of the presidential race. Biden, Swalwell told POLITICO, said, “he would do everything he could if he were elected to ‘pass the torch.’ The congressman said he believes Biden sees the deployment of pundits and surrogates as a nod to the public that the government is working on her behalf.
“These are the faces,” Swalwell said of Biden’s current approach. “It’s not a show.”
Some faces in the administration are more prominent than others. Vice President Kamala Harris has attended Biden at many meetings and appearances, as her press team has carefully noted. This week she was engaged in interviews with TV stations and newsrooms in Arizona and West Virginia, states with Democratic senators courting the government to support its priorities.
Then there’s Pete Buttigieg, known for his non-stop media hits during his presidential bid and as one of the most effective surrogates of the Biden campaign.
Buttigieg has had a staggering number of appearances in his new role as an appointed transport secretary, stopping on ‘The View’, ‘Morning Joe’ (twice) and another MSNBC show, CNN (twice), NPR, Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight show, local TV stations in Green Bay and Detroit, an interview with the Washington Post and a sit-down with “Captain America” star Chris Evans’ media company – all since mid-December.
Presidential nominees traditionally adhere to a strict omertà code before the Senate refers them. But a Buttigieg advisor said the issues he’s talking about – Covid relief, Biden’s “Buy American” executive order, and climate change – are all “key transportation priorities that Pete would like to work on at DOT, if confirmed.”
Buttigieg’s actual role in the administration has at times lagged behind in the news dominating the day. In a recent CNN interview with Don Lemon, he was asked about the Senate impeachment hearings involving Trump, Biden’s commitment to unity, and the president’s reversal of the military’s transgender ban – a topic with which he has a personal connection as an openly gay veteran. .
Rather than ducking, Buttigieg followed the lead of others in Biden’s orbit and enlisted, citing Biden’s command as an example of what it really means to “support our troops.”
Natasha Korecki contributed to this report.