Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz said on Wednesday accused the media of applying an “absolute double standard” in not demanding more access to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
“I’m fascinated by the fact that there was really no pressure for Joe Biden to come out of the bunker and address the media in the past few weeks. What do you make of that?” asked co-anchor Trace Gallagher on Fox’s “America’s Newsroom.”
“It’s an absolute double standard,” Kurtz, host of “Media Buzz,” replied. “Now it’s good that Joe Biden had a news conference yesterday, but he hadn’t taken any questions from his press corps in a month. He did five interviews in June compared to 21 interviews for President Trump.”
“And the media, which are usually demanding access [by saying]: ‘We have to hold these candidates accountable,’ basically did stories saying, ‘The Biden in the basement strategy is working because he’s going up in the polls’ rather than demanding access,” he said.
The perspective came one day after the former gave his first press conference in 89 days near his home in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday.
“I understand the temptation for the Biden campaign because he has been doing well in the polls,” Kurtz later added. “The president has been out there a lot and he has been dropping in the polls. But that’s not going to last.”
“Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is trying to figure out how to attack Joe Biden,” he noted. “The ‘Sleepy Joe’ thing isn’t working. Instead, they’re going to accuse him of being a captive of the left. That’s the new strategy.”
Biden took questions from six reporters on Tuesday in a press conference that lasted about 30 minutes and covered topics including his plans for campaigning amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m going to follow the doc’s orders — not just for me but for the country — and that means that I am not going to be holding rallies,” the 77-year-old said. “I won’t be holding rallies.”
Biden also said it would be a “dereliction of duty” if Trump didn’t read his intelligence briefings after a New York Times report saying U.S. intelligence alleged Russia offered bounties to incentivize Taliban-connected militants to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.
“The Presidential Daily Brief was something I read every single day as vice president. The president read it every single day,” Biden said, referring to former President Obama. “So the idea that he somehow didn’t know or isn’t being briefed, it is a dereliction of duty if that’s the case.”
“It actually paid some dividends for the former vice president,” Kurtz noted Wednesday in underscoring Biden’s accusations, which captured headlines. “When you engage with reporters, you make news. It’s a law of campaign physics.”
The former Delaware senator’s lead in the polls has jumped in the past month, with the Democrat now leading the incumbent Republican by 9.5 points in the RealClearPolitics index of polls.
Shortly before the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, Biden’s lead was 5.5 points.