MSNBC squandered a rare live televised interview with President Biden as its liberal host Nicolle Wallace spent more time giggling in admiration of the commander in chief than asking tough questions and generating headlines, failing to bring up Hunter Biden even once.
"This is very exciting for us!" Wallace exclaimed with a giant grin immediately after she welcomed the president.
Biden sat down for a roughly 20-minute appearance, which began with a focus on his reaction to the Supreme Court's historic decision to strike down affirmative action.
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Wallace kicked off the interview by asking Biden what he meant by his earlier comment knocking the court as being not "normal" and followed up with other questions, like how the six conservative justices "got it so wrong" with their ruling, whether he agreed with Senate Democrats who've called the court "anti-democratic" and if he has considered "shaking up" the bench since it is "too young and too conservative" and will continue doing "harm." Biden reaffirmed his hesitancy to expand the Supreme Court, something prominent members of the Democratic Party have called for.
The "Deadline: White House" host then switched topics to the Justice Department but not to discuss the misconduct IRS whistleblowers are alleging in the Biden administration's handling of the Hunter Biden probe. Instead, she asked why it delayed its investigation into former President Trump over his actions on Jan. 6 and why he hadn't been prosecuted for them thus far.
After asking Biden about how 2024 GOP hopefuls like Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are "openly running on politicizing the rule of law," Wallace pressed on whether he'll be prioritizing "threats to democracy" in his reelection bid.
Wallace briefly touched on the short-lived attempted mutiny in Russia this past week, wondering what knowledge the White House had in advance before pondering to Biden whether Trump would have "tipped off" Vladimir Putin if the 45th president was still in office. Biden said he didn't know, as Wallace, one of the most openly pro-Biden figures in cable news, giggled again.
Following a long-winded tangent from Biden, Wallace asked him what his late Senate colleague John McCain, whom she worked for during his 2008 presidential run, would think of the modern Republican Party, which inspired another tangent about the old bipartisan days.
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"Well, Mr. President, we don't get a lot of presidents through this studio," Wallace said before chuckling. "Consider it your chair, consider it an open invitation. There going to be a lot of things on people's minds and I hope you'll look at this as a place you can come and talk about anything that's on your mind."
"I will," Biden smirked.
After even more banter bashing the GOP, the interview ended and Biden wandered off the set as Wallace was telling viewers "don't go anywhere" before the commercial break.
"As many expected, it was yet another embarrassing display for the network as Wallace giggled her way through the interview, heaping praises and adulations on the Democrat," NewsBusters writer Nicholas Fondacaro noted about the exchange.
Many topics were left unmentioned during the live interview, most notably the fallout from the criminal probe into Biden's son. While he continues to deny any involvement regarding Hunter Biden's business dealings, an explosive WhatsApp text message the son allegedly sent to a Chinese business associate shows him invoking his father in what appears to be an extortion scheme. House Republicans have accused multiple members of the Biden family of creating shell companies to funnel big bucks from foreign entities.
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Biden notably told Wallace's MSNBC colleague Stephanie Ruhle in an interview last month that his son had done "nothing wrong." Since then, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax violations and entered a pretrial diversion agreement regarding the felony gun registration charge.
But IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley alleged that Delaware-based U.S. Attorney David Weiss was told by the DOJ he could not bring harsher charges against the president's son in California and Washington D.C., an accusation Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied. Shapley also claimed he was blocked from investigating avenues that could have led to the president's own financial involvement.
Another sore subject Wallace avoided was Biden's fitness to serve, which has come into question yet again this week after he mistakenly referred to Ukraine as Iraq twice within a 24-hour period, among other recent gaffes. This comes as an NBC News poll show 68% of voters worry about his health going into the 2024 presidential election cycle.
Wallace, a former GOP flack who has become one of MSNBC's biggest stars, has a history of fawning over her liberal guests including Biden, ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti. She also once referred to herself as a "groupie" for Dr. Anthony Fauci.
