Super Softballs: The Long History of Big Game Fawning Over Obama and Biden

With Joe Biden’s popularity cratering, the White House finally announced on Tuesday that the President will submit to a pre-Super Bowl interview, talking to Nightly News anchor Lester Holt. Just five days prior to the event, it was confirmed. 

History has demonstrated that Democrats like Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden love super softballs just before big games. This Super Bowl interview might be different. Maybe Holt will ask Biden about falling into the 30s in the Real Clear Politics average of polls, the crisis at the border, Hunter Biden or the ongoing disaster in Afghanistan. 

Last year, CBS did not air the Super Bowl. Instead, CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell flattered the now-79-year-old, comparing Biden to a NFL athlete. O’Donnell gushed, “So many people might not know that you were once a pretty good receiver yourself back in the day.” 

She ridiculously wondered, “But as a former receiver, which quarterback would you rather have throw to you? Tom Brady [Patrick] Mahomes?” O’Donnell asked for a prediction: “You thinking the Kansas City Chiefs may win?” 

Although George W. Bush did pre-game chat in 2004, the presidential Super Bowl interview didn’t become a tradition until Obama. Obama and Biden were Democrats so they enjoyed very easy interviews.

This is a collage: 

CBS News had a 2016 assignment This Morning Gayle King is a cohost and a donor and supporter of the Obama family. She also visited the Obamas before they went to the Super Bowl. The network managed to secure one of the most relaxed interviews ever recorded by the Democratic Administration. Instead of asking serious questions, she highlighted King’s favourite photo with his wife. King spoke out about relationship problems, dancing moves, and Super Bowl predictions. 

Do you like it? Access Hollywood, the host gave the Obamas a photograph: “This is just a picture I happen to have ….. What was your thinking? It’s one word. One word?.”

Prior to the 2009 game,Now host Matt Lauer enthused to Obama: “Has there been any surprise in terms about life in the White House? Is there something at the White House that you didn’t think they had or doesn’t have that you thought they did have?” 

Here is a collage of Lauer’s Super Bowl softballs in 2009: 

Lauer, who hadn’t yet been accused of sexual harassment and abuse, enthused, “…Not only did you just become president, obviously that carries a certain amount of fame  with it. But… you have achieved a… certain rock-star status outside of that.”

Donald Trump has done two interviews (2017, 2020) with Fox during his four-year tenure as President. In 2018, Trump skipped his interview and spoke to Margaret Brennan when CBS was hosting the Super Bowl. However, liberals should not believe that Bill O’Reilly (then-Fox) asked Trump tougher questions in 2017. 

Is there any validity to the criticism of you that you say things you can’t back up factually, and as the president, if you say, for example, that there are three million illegal aliens who voted and then you don’t have the data to back it up, some people are going say that it’s irresponsible for a president to say that. 

That’s a little tougher than NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in 2015 appearing with Obama before the big game to laud: “We are in the White House kitchen where, among other things, you brew beer!”

Holt, the 2022 Super Bowl interviewer, has embarrassed himself in regular political interviews. In 2016, he admitted to “wincing” when someone questioned Hillary Clinton’s honesty. Talking to the Democrat, he tossed this softball: “You’ve obviously been in tough battles, political battles, but do you get your feelings hurt sometimes?”

Let’s hope that Holt does slightly better on Super Sunday.