• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, July 16, 2024

President Biden tried lamely to draw attention away from Night One of the Republican Convention with a prime-time interview on NBC, but the night belonged to Donald Trump and the GOP.

On NBC, Biden was seated face to face with news anchor Lester Holt for an interview taped at the White House earlier in the day. It aired in prime-time Monday night from 9 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. Eastern.

Meanwhile, in Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, the Republican faithful awaited the arrival of Donald Trump amid the razzle dazzle of a noisy political convention. 

Televised conventions can be exciting. Watching the President converse with Lester Holt in a stuffy room in the White House was not. 

Holt lobbed questions at the President about the attempt on Trump’s life on Saturday, about the Secret Service, and about Biden’s call for both sides in our national politics to tone down the rhetoric.

In response, Biden didn’t tone down his rhetoric at all. Instead, he used the interview to attack Trump and make his case for reelection. 

If the White House strategists thought that getting Biden on network TV in the middle of Night One of the Trump Convention would distract the world from the GOP, then nice try, but no cigar.

On Monday, the news cycle belonged to the Republicans. This is usually the case on Night One of either party’s four-night quadrennial convention.

But this year’s Night One of the GOP Convention came just two days after their nominee narrowly escaped death and then defiantly put his fist in the air.

As a result, even more than usual, all eyes are on Trump this week -- so much so that the handwringing in the Democratic party over their presumptive nominee’s cognitive fitness for office seemed on Monday to be on pause, or at least until after the Republicans’ final day in Milwaukee on Thursday.

Starting late Monday afternoon, the news channels began reporting that The Donald would come to the arena later in the evening, live and in person. And that he did.

It was a made-for-TV moment. Wearing a fresh bandage over his right ear, he entered the big space a few minutes after 10 p.m. Eastern.

He soaked up the cheers, heard the crowd chant “Fight! Fight! Fight!” and made his way to a seat near family members and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who had been named as Trump’s running mate earlier in the day. Trump made no speeches.

Trump’s entrance came well after NBC’s interview with President Biden came and went.

On that subject, NBC devoting a half-hour of prime time to President Biden while the Republican Convention was being televised everywhere else was unusual.

But when the Biden interview was over, Lester Holt announced that NBC News has invited Trump to do a prime-time interview of his own on Night One of the Democratic Convention on August 19. As of last night, the Trump campaign had not yet RSVP’d.

Speakers on the GOP’s Night One included Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who is best known outside of her state for killing her own dog.

Coverage of the entirety of each of these and other speeches was sporadic as the news channels preferred to air discussions of their anchormen, anchorwomen, talk-show hosts and pundits over the actual convention.

As for the “rhetoric,” maybe the rhetoric was toned down across the airwaves or maybe not. 

The TV Blog really doesn’t know where “rhetoric” begins and ends in the way the word is being bandied about by President Biden and the media in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt.

This week, the Trump brand message was made clear on Monday night. This week at the Convention, he is being positioned as a hero who survived an attempt on his life by the intervention of God whose “endorsement” signals to the GOP that a Trump victory in November is preordained.

But will the “rhetoric” be “toned down”? Despite Saturday’s violence, the political atmosphere is still as heated as it was before Saturday. 

Look for the tone of “rhetoric” -- however one chooses to define it -- to get ratcheted up once again, if it hasn’t been already.