“Our communication strategy is based on innovation in the digital space, which floods the area in local and coalition press and makes effective use of traditional national media. He’s the president, he has a lot on his plate. We have people who come up with different media every day to reinforce his message, ”Kate Berner, deputy director of communications, told POLITICO. “We do not let his schedule be a limiting factor for us. We use the cabinet, they are experts in their field. They also have audiences with whom they can speak uniquely. ”
During the campaign, the Biden team sold themselves as calm. Their commitment to the promise since taking office makes it clear was not just a show for voters, but a real strategy. This is a brand new departure from four years of President Donald Trump, who was his own deputy and aspiring editor-in-chief, who tweeted changes to the policy and took the typically contradictory relationship with the press to a full-scale war.
But Biden’s approach also differs markedly from that of his former boss, Barack Obama. In 2009, Obama became the first sitting president to appear in a late-night talk show, and at the end of his presidency, the government began exploring new and innovative ways to go beyond the White House press to convey his message. .
Obama sat down for an “Between Two Ferns” interview with actor Zach Galifianakis in 2014 and interviewed YouTube stars, including GloZell Green, who up to that point was best known for eating grain from the bath while he sat in it and choked. a spoonful of cinnamon.
Jennifer Palmieri, then White House communications director, said the strategy shift came after realizing that any Sunday program or cable hit would be about controversy and process rather than actual policy, at a time when Americans are still thinking Washington DC was about compromise. She argued that Biden does not have the same limitations, mainly because he pursues an easier-to-sell agenda.
“They do not have the burden that the Obama team had on trying to convince people that a policy is going to improve their lives,” Palmieri said. ‘Joe Biden is never going to fill the news vacuum created by Donald Trump’s departure. But the government can do it largely. ”
Within the White House, the belief is that Biden can best be used as a party player who comes in at great moments when there is a need to repair the press story or pursue an important policy. It did not always go according to plan – sometimes the White House had to step back or comment, which Biden made clear in the interviews he gave.
But as a strategy, it’s a return to an era that was before Obama’s White House, when the country heard sparingly from the president.
But it is also a continuation of the campaign strategy – especially during the general election – based on the idea that too much exposure did not necessarily work to his advantage. This attitude provoked criticism from the press as well as then-President Trump, who did daily press conferences on Covid-19 while his opponent largely broadcast from his home in Delaware. But Biden’s assistants believed that simplicity and self-control were the best approach. He won the election.
‘I do not think we felt that way [Trump’s team] did work, ”a senior communications assistant told POLITICO. “What [Trump] to do as a strategy was not successful. ‘
Robert Gibbs, Obama’s first press secretary, says the current media environment enforces a balance for any White House staff. The American people want to see the president work. But overexposure involves risk – and not just in the form of increased chances for a notable gaffe.
‘I used to have these talks with President Obama; ‘we just put too much of the communication work on top of him,’ ‘Gibbs said. ‘In fact, once you elevate it to the role of the president commenting on it, you can not really go backwards. Like that it is now fully owned by them. ”
Gibbs said he is a little envious of the use of substitutes in the Biden House, which could take the burden and setback to explain White House policy.
The Biden cabinet quickly became the mainstay of purple. Just this Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, ‘Meet the Press’, Jennifer Granholm, Energy Secretary, hit ‘This Week’ and Pete Buttigieg, Transport Secretary, pulled double duty on Fox News Sunday and State of the Union.
Biden’s Cabinet also accepted the task that Obama largely saw alone as going to unconventional media to reach alternative audiences. In March, HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge interviewed The Shade Room, a pop culture site for a young, black audience. She discussed the stimulus investigations and specifically how homeless individuals could make sure they get one. The government has dr. Anthony Fauci, a key Covid-19 adviser to the president, sent to do a nearly 30-minute Instagram Live meeting with Eugenio Derbez, a Mexican actor and a self-admitted “vaccine skeptic,” where he answers questions about efficiency. and safety of the Covid-19 vaccines. The video was viewed and counted 1.2 million times.
“There’s a media ecosystem in Washington that needs to be respected, but if you only rely on it to get your message across, it’s a mistake,” said Eric Schultz, Obama’s former deputy press secretary and current senior adviser to Obama. the president, said.
During the 2020 campaign, Biden’s team knew he was not putting himself in situations that were not naturally comfortable. This does not mean that the digital landscape is being forfeited. This does not mean using the principal too much and finding new and creative ways to meet people on the internet. Rob Flaherty, the digital director of the White House, says when they were working on the plan, the first thing they had in mind was that they had to go beyond the press and find ways to ‘in every place. be because people’s media experiences online are hyperpersonal and superfractural. ”
The White House’s social accounts are not a current awareness of the president. They are also not very adventurous. They largely consist of edited excerpts from Biden’s public remarks and weekly conversations where Biden answers questions from Americans about policy. The president’s team has taken a reasonable certainty: most Americans do not hang out on Twitter like the residents of DC.
“We’re going off our platforms and going into the social feeds of people who will never watch CNN or read Vox, but will trust different influencers and Instagram accounts and Facebook pages,” Flaherty said. “If you do those things, you’re actually getting busy with the nooks and crannies on the Internet that the White House would not normally reach.”
Democrats from the Obama years say they expect the Biden team to start using Biden itself in more unconventional ways (and if) the country ever feels that it is not some life-changing crisis after another. But one thing that probably will not change: a return to any of the press drama from the Trump years, no matter how much right-wing media hinders on ‘Basement Joe’.
“We do not want to drive everyone crazy on Twitter,” Berner said. “We want to send the message that Americans across the country know what their government is doing for them and how their taxpayers’ money is being used and that they have confidence in the government.”