Supporters of Bernie Sanders and President Trump were united by a common question over the last week: Where is Joe Biden?
It is a somewhat rhetorical question intended to suggest that the 77-year-old with a half-century of governing experience is out of touch with the public. Sanders supporters are disappointed that the socialist Vermont senator has next to no chance of winning the Democratic presidential nomination, while Trump supporters try to portray the former vice president as incompetent.
The answer is that Biden is self-isolating, like many people, in his home and figuring out how to break through coverage of Trump’s daily briefings on the global coronavirus pandemic to share his message in a digital format. In a press call on Friday, he told reporters that he was learning about “ways we can do teleconferencing.”
While Biden is a talented retail campaigner, often forming personal connections with voters face-to-face and feeding off energy from the crowd at his events, he is not a natural communicator in digital formats. He does not appear to write his own tweets, like Trump, his first attempt at a “virtual town hall” had numerous glitches, and other livestreams were mocked for their poor production value.
Biden’s campaign aimed to fix that this weekend, installing a professional studio in Biden’s basement.
With the coronavirus bringing normal activities to a halt, the 2020 presidential campaign is now being run out of the White House briefing room and Biden’s converted basement just over 100 miles away in Wilmington, Delaware.
On Monday, Biden held his first livestream using professional production equipment.
Higher-quality lighting and equipment made Biden appear and sound better than when he appeared in a livestream last week following primary victories. Gone were Biden’s shiny forehead and the two American flags in front of a black curtain, traded in for lighting that gave color to Biden’s face and a library backdrop that some speculated was a digital green screen image.
But there were still some kinks in the flow of his address.
“Mics are hot,” a staff member said at the start of the stream.
“Ready to go?” Biden asked as he appeared on the screen. He looked to his staff, then to the camera, scratched his nose, looked at his staff, and then looked back to the camera again.
“Good morning. I hope you and your family are doing well in these difficult and anxious times,” he began.
At another point, Biden gestured to his staff to move a teleprompter to the next point in his prepared script.
“In addition to that, we have to make sure that we are in a position that we are — well, let me, let me go to the second thing, I spoke enough on that,” Biden said after calling for activating the doctors in Reserve Corps. He transitioned to criticizing Trump for calling himself a “wartime president.”
It was the type of redirection that would be minor for Biden when he speaks to rooms of voters, but it came across like a mistake during a direct-to-screen scripted address. He also mispronounced the Massachusetts governor’s name, calling him Charlie Parker rather than Baker.
Biden’s campaign, though, is optimistic that the former vice president can match a reality TV star president’s presence on camera.
“He doesn’t have coronavirus, but he does have a camera now. So buckle up!” Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield tweeted Monday in response to a false claim that Biden tested positive for the respiratory illness.
Better equipment could also allow Biden to appear on more television programs from his home rather than in a studio. He is scheduled to be on The View on Tuesday.
