As Trump Takes a Risk With CNN, Biden Plays It Safe
When Donald Trump announced he will appear at a town hall hosted by longtime adversary CNN in the early-voting state of New Hampshire next week, the announcement was met with mixed reactions.
Some saw it as an implicit dig at CNN's conservative competitor Fox News, which recently parted ways with its controversial Trump-supporting host Tucker Carlson following its settlement in a lawsuit over alleged damages tied to the network's airing of Trump's baseless claims about 2020 election fraud. Others characterized the event as a shameless ratings grab by CNN, whom many liberals have blamed for aiding Trump's rise to legitimacy during the 2016 primaries.
For Trump, however, the reasoning was simple: It's smart politics.
With his commanding polling lead over the rest of the Republican field, the GOP nomination is essentially Trump's to lose in the Republican primaries. While he faces criminal investigations in two different states and at the Department of Justice, he is assuming the role of the de facto nominee as he makes as many media appearances as possible.
Even with a cable outlet he has said purveys "fake news."
"In Trump, we have a deeply narcissistic personality who feeds on the adoration of his core supporters," Thomas Hollihan, a professor of communication at the University of Southern California and an expert in presidential rhetoric, told Newsweek.
"He's also someone who wants to dominate the news cycle," Hollihan continued. "And if he's not out holding rallies and making bold statements and attracting the news that way, there's going to be more coverage of the trial in New York, which is of course all negative coverage, as well as the upcoming threat of prosecution in Georgia and maybe in the documents case in Florida. So his interest is clearly to be out front, to try to shape the news agenda to demonstrate that he still attracts the adoration of the mob, etcetera."
Trump's CNN town hall has been characterized as an effort to contrast himself with Florida's media-averse governor, Ron DeSantis, who is weighing a bid for president. But a Trump campaign aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters that stepping outside of a traditional comfort zone for Republicans was key to Trump's success in 2016 and could play a similar role in 2024.
The move is somewhat by design, said Boston University communication professor Tammy Vigil. A lightning rod for outrage, Trump receives "tons of free media" from journalists who inherently see him as newsworthy, keeping him in the forefront of voters' minds and strengthening his standing, she told Newsweek.
"He might be more 'newsworthy' from the sensationalist perspective, but it is irresponsible and disrespectful to pretend there are no other contenders for the nomination," Vigil said.
But events like the one planned with CNN also give Trump ammunition against President Joe Biden, whom Trump regularly accused of campaigning "from his basement" during the 2020 election cycle.
"Some other candidates are too afraid to take this step in their quest to defeat Joe Biden and are afraid to do anything other than Fox News," the Trump campaign aide told news outlet Semafor.
Biden, in contrast, has the advantage of being an incumbent, able to conduct his campaign within the structure of tightly coordinated events. But that's also raised questions about his authenticity.
While he's traveled the country regularly, boosting his policy initiatives, and takes questions from reporters, his comments are rarely off the cuff. Some incidents have resulted in attention-grabbing gaffes that have distracted from his message. A recent incident in which reporters' questions were visible on a notecard in his hand prompted allegations that Biden was too scripted and raised questions about a press too willing to accept the administration's narrative.
Much has been made of Biden's lack of unscripted time—he did just half the number of news conferences Donald Trump did in his first year as president and has held fewer press conferences per year on average than all presidents but Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, according to data from the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. But he has also been more public-facing than some of his White House predecessors, regularly traveling the country and holding public events in states outside of his traditional base.
"This strategy of running from the Rose Garden is well established as a path to reelection for incumbents. In Biden's case, I think he's more out there than some of them," Hollihan said.
"I would cite his appearance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend, where I thought he really connected with the audience, demonstrated his sense of humor and a quick wit, and confronted those that he saw as unfairly critical of him and his administration," he said.
As of now, Biden has no real reason to diverge from that—especially with the prospect of an election still far away. National Democrats have already hinted they do not intend to hold a debate between the president and his prospective challengers ahead of next year's primaries. On the Republican side, however, at least a half-dozen candidates will likely be fighting Trump tooth and nail for as many primary state victories as they can get.
Still, the urge to directly contrast himself with Trump could linger for Biden, especially given the national media's apparent willingness to assume Trump will be the Republican nominee well before a victor has been decided.
"Biden definitely should not debate Trump until/unless Trump formally secures the Republican nomination," Vigil said. "To do so ahead of that point would legitimize Trump in a way that is not helpful to anyone. I get the image issue Biden might face, but he'd be much better off doing a couple of solo town hall meetings instead of engaging directly with Trump before the general election.
"Trump should have to earn his spot as the GOP standard-bearer before he is treated like he occupies that role, despite what most journalists seem to think," Vigil said.
