With his approval ratings falling and Democrats abandoning their candidacy, Joseph R. Biden Jr. sat down with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, hoping the big TV interview might help galvanize a presidential campaign that appeared all but over.
That day was February 9, 2020. Biden finished fifth in the New Hampshire primary two days later, but then mounted a stunning comeback to win again in South Carolina and ultimately ascend to the presidency.
Four and a half years later, as calls for Biden to drop out of the presidential race grow, he and his advisers are betting again on the anchor who interviewed him during the most harrowing period of his political career.
Friday's pivotal interview between Mr. Stephanopoulos and Mr. Biden is scheduled to be taped in the afternoon in Madison, Wisconsin, and air in full at 8 p.m. Eastern time. It is widely seen as the president's best hope to calm cascading fears about Mr. Biden's mental and physical health following his disastrous performance in last week's debate with former President Donald J. Trump.
Friday's interview is expected to last between 15 and 25 minutes, according to three people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail private discussions between ABC and Biden aides. Presidential advisers are constantly negotiating the structure of major interviews, but the exact length often depends on what happens during the taping. Biden could extend the interview on his own accord, or Stephanopoulos could ask for more time to ask follow-up questions.
ABC has promised to air the entire interview unedited, meaning any attempts by Biden aides to end the conversation would likely be captured on camera and shown to viewers. The primetime special, “One on One with President Biden,” has been teased by affiliates as being 30 minutes long but could be longer.
Plans for the interview began to come together late Tuesday morning, when Mr. Stephanopoulos received a text message from White House spokesman Ben LaBolt: Mr. Biden's team wanted to know whether Mr. Stephanopoulos would be willing to sit down with the president, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Another person familiar with Biden's campaign strategy said the White House chose ABC because it has larger viewership than its competitors and is widely seen as a nonpartisan news outlet.
ABC's “World News Tonight,” which aired the first clips of the interview at 6:30 pm Eastern time on Friday, was the most-watched evening news program, beating NBC and CBS. ABC also had the highest audience for the debate of the three major broadcast networks, nearly matching the audience of CNN, which hosted the debate.
Biden is also close with Stephanopoulos, having interviewed him dozens of times throughout Biden's career as a senator, vice president and president. Stephanopoulos last interviewed Biden at the White House in August 2021, when the president was facing intense criticism in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Stephanopoulos, a star anchor and former Democratic strategist who oversaw Bill Clinton's messaging in the 1990s, now has the delicate task of pressing the commander in chief about age, declining frailty and personal questions about what really happened during the debate, when Biden repeatedly lost his train of thought below the debate stage, stared blankly at his opponent and struggled to get a simple political point across.
Stephanopoulos has spent the past few days preparing the interview before flying to Wisconsin, where Biden will campaign on Friday. “Good Morning America” ​​executive producer Simone Swink and ABC News political director Rick Klein will be present for the taping, according to a person familiar with the plans.
Mr. Stephanopoulos, who joined ABC in 1997, will inevitably face some harsh criticism himself: Will his questions come across as too sweet and sympathetic or too harsh and callous? How much candor can he extract from Mr. Biden in the time he has?
Some right-wing websites have already circulated conspiracy theories that because the interview wasn't broadcast live, ABC might arbitrarily edit and reframe Biden's answers. ABC initially said it would air the full interview on “This Week” Sunday morning. But hours later, the network reversed course and announced it would air the unedited version in primetime on Friday.
ABC communicated the decision to the Biden campaign on Tuesday but received no objections, two people familiar with the discussions said.
Fans of “Jeopardy! Masters” may be in for a disappointment: ABC's parent company, the Walt Disney Company, has agreed to suspend Friday night reruns of the game show to allow the interview to air in primetime.
Katie Rogers Contributed report.