The White House announced on February 10 that an interview that President Biden was supposed to have with Fox News before the Super Bowl on Sunday had been canceled, ending a back-and-forth argument between the Biden administration and the news outlet.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced earlier on Friday that Fox News had canceled a proposal for President Biden to interview with Fox Soul, a streaming platform targeting black Americans.
Jean-Pierre sent out a tweet on Friday saying that Biden was looking forward to interviewing with Fox Soul, where he would discuss the Super Bowl and issues impacting the lives of black Americans, but they had been informed that the media house had decided to cancel the interview.
Hours after the tweet, Fox announced they would proceed with the interview, saying there had been a miscommunication about the interview with the White House. They also said they had flown reporters to Washington earlier that day to interview him.
However, a few hours later, on Friday evening, the administration announced the interview was canceled.
According to a White House spokesperson, the administration had arranged for the President to get interviewed by sports host Mike Hill and Vivica A. Fox ahead of the Super Bowl, but Fox News canceled the interview. The spokesperson accused Fox News of putting out false information about the interview getting rescheduled.
The network had been seeking an interview with President Biden for weeks, but the White House did not commit to one, as they have had a contentious relationship with the right-wing channel.
The White House, however, tried to go around Fox News by setting up an interview with Fox Soul, which would still have allowed the President to participate in the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview without having to sit down with one of Fox News’ anchors or reporters.
Since his presidency began, Biden has never granted Fox News an interview despite repeated requests from the network. The network continuously portrays Biden and his administration negatively, with some of its anchors regularly launching vicious attacks against him.
The controversy over the canceled interview stirred up political debate in the media, with some left-leaning outlets saying that Fox News snubbed Biden while other media houses say that the President snubbed the outlet.
It was not the first Super Bowl presidential interview to be canceled. In 2018, former President Trump declined an interview with Lester Holt while NBC was hosting the Super Bowl.