Television is an important tool for any politician. It’s a way to get your message to the masses, a way to help influence public opinion, and a way to get yourself re-elected; after all, if you seem affable enough on camera, then people will want to have a beer with you, which for some reason makes you more electable. “Over the years, [the relationship between presidents and television] has grown complex and tempestuous (virtually every president from Harry Truman through Bill Clinton has left office disaffected with the nation’s press),” reads the Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television (via The Television Academy). “More than anything else, however, this relationship has been symbiotic — the president and the press now depend upon one another for sustenance.”
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Because of how tightly politicians and the press are wound up with one another, presidents have historically agreed to television interviews for any number of reasons. They may expect that they’ll be afforded a certain amount of respectability, certain allowances given the power of their office, but things sometimes don’t go according to plan. Appearing on camera can be risky, because where live television is concerned, anything is possible. For example, just think of how many awkward Donald Trump moments have been caught on camera. From Richard Nixon to Joe Biden, read on for a roundup of presidential TV interviews that didn’t go as planned.
George W. Bush doubled down on his reaction to Kanye West’s comment
Mere months into President George W. Bush’s first term, he was in an elementary school classroom when he learned that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. It was September 11, 2001, and it was one of the darkest days in American history. To hear Bush tell it, though, things would get much worse. Speaking with Matt Lauer in 2010, Bush said the worst day of his presidency was when Kanye West basically called him a racist on national TV.
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In a 2010 primetime NBC interview, Bush reflected on the 2005 telethon that was meant to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The Bush administration was widely criticized for its lackluster response to the natural disaster, leaving tens of thousands of people vulnerable, and rapper Kanye West took matters into his own hands. “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people,” West said on stage, touching off a controversy.
“I didn’t appreciate it then, and I don’t appreciate it now,” Bush told Lauer. “I resent it. It’s not true. And it was one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency.” Lauer pointed out, “You told Laura [Bush] at the time it was the worst moment of your presidency?” Bush — who, again, was president on 9/11 — agreed, “Yeah.” Lauer pointed out that he might face backlash for saying that, and Bush responded, “Don’t care.” Alrighty then.
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Bill Clinton fired back at questions about Osama Bin Laden
A lot of presidents have massive communications departments insulating them from the press while they’re in office, but afterwards, they’re sometimes on their own. That was the case when Bill Clinton appeared on “Fox News Sunday” in 2006, years after he left the White House in the hands of George W. Bush. Clinton was interviewed by Fox News host Chris Wallace, who pressed the former president about why he hadn’t taken out al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden while he was president. Things got heated, to say the least.
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Clinton didn’t like that, and he let Wallace know just how inappropriate he found that line of questioning. “I’m being asked this on the Fox network,” he pointed out, complaining that even ABC had just suggested his administration was responsible for 9/11. “All the conservative Republicans who now say I didn’t do enough claimed that I was too obsessed with bin Laden,” he said, leaning in close to the interviewer as the two repeatedly interrupted one another.
As they went back and forth about whether he was responsible for 9/11, Clinton finally had enough. “You did Fox’s bidding on this show,” he said. “You did your nice little conservative hit job on me.” For his part, Wallace later told NBC News he was taken aback by the president’s anger. “All I did was ask him a question,” he said, “and I think it was a legitimate news question.”
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Donald Trump’s interview with Jonathan Swan was a wild ride
Cast your mind back to the waning months of 2020. We’d spent most of the year inside, fearful of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were mass protests as the result of the police killing of George Floyd, and there was also a presidential election that year, too. It was in that context that President Donald Trump sat down with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, ostensibly to talk about how his administration had handled all of that year’s cascading crises.
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The interview, however, went completely off the rails. Throughout the course of their long conversation, Trump made a number of strange statements about the pandemic, including at one point insisting that the COVID-19 numbers were high because we were testing too much. “There are those that say you can test too much. You do know that?” he insisted. Swan asked who the president was talking about, and Trump shot back, “Just read the manuals. Read the books.” Questioned about dying Americans, Trump responded, “It is what it is.”
In the interview’s most infamous moment, Trump handed the reporter a baffling chart. “United States is lowest in numerous categories. We’re lower than the world,” Trump said proudly. Swan’s utterly befuddled expression went viral online, leading one person on X, formerly Twitter to remark, “The AXIOS interview made such a huge splash because Jonathan Swan didn’t attempt to help Trump’s illusion. He reacted with appropriate bafflement and horror.”
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Richard Nixon offered a bold statement about presidential power
For the most part, politicians rarely give up power unless they have to. President Richard Nixon saw no other choice as the Watergate scandal threatened to envelop the second term of his presidency; after the Congress introduced articles of impeachment against him, he chose to step down rather than put the country through a lengthy trial.
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Years later, Nixon sat down with journalist David Frost to go over what, exactly, happened. They discussed the fact that Nixon and his administration had been caught sending burglars to the Watergate Hotel in an effort to dig up dirt on their opponents, and they talked about the resulting cover-up that ultimately led to Nixon facing impeachment. However, the Frost/Nixon interview became even more infamous than it would’ve otherwise been when Nixon offered up a legendarily gutsy defense of his actions. He told the incredulous journalist, “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” Yikes.
“In doing so, Nixon offers a theory of executive prerogative that goes beyond that offered by Jefferson and Lincoln,” said historian Jeremy D. Bailey (via Teaching American History). For a long time, this statement was viewed as a classic example of executive overreach. In 2024, however, the Supreme Court broadly expanded presidential immunity, leading historians to reconsider Nixon’s statement. Former White House lawyer John Dean told NPR simply, “Richard Nixon would have had a pass.”
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Bill Clinton was asked a personal question on MTV and he answered it
President Bill Clinton represented a new generation coming into power. As sociologist Andrew Cherlin told Time in 1992, Clinton was the first Boomer president. “World War II is as far away from Bill Clinton’s generation as World War I was for George Bush’s generation,” he said. “What is happening is that the first half of this century is receding in our institutional memory.” As a result, Clinton aimed to appeal to younger voters than ever before, finding new ways to reach his constituents. “I had to be the first president of all those young people who were old enough to vote and were, among other things, into rap music,” he later told “American Masters.” One way to reach those voters: an appearance on MTV.
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When the president appeared on the youth-oriented network in 1994, he took questions from young voters. All went well until a teenager named Laetitia Thompson stood up and asked, “Mr. President, the world’s dying to know: is it boxers, or briefs?” The then-leader of the free world looked surprised by the question, but he answered it anyway, seemingly surprising even himself. “Usually briefs,” he confessed, before adding, “I can’t believe she did that.” Mr. President … we can’t believe you answered.
Per The Washington Post, Thompson later told reporters, “He’s very sexually oriented, and people are always interested in that.” A few years later, Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky would dominate his presidency.
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Barack Obama called out Bret Baier for interrupting him
Sometimes, presidents agree to sit down with a news organization that tends to be ideologically opposed to their presidency. While it may seem like a bad idea to step into the arena with someone you disagree with on pretty much everything, it can also be a good way to reach voters on the other side of the aisle, a way to make them see that maybe, you’re not as scary as their reporters make you out to be.
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At least, that’s what we imagine President Barack Obama was thinking when he agreed to a Fox News interview with Bret Baier in 2010. However, after sparring with the reporter about the details of his healthcare plan, the president made it clear that he was tired of being interrupted as he tried to explain his perspective. “Let me finish my answers,” Obama said, holding his hand out as if to stop the other man from speaking. “I’m trying to answer your questions, and you keep on interrupting me.”
By the end of the exchange, Baier appeared apologetic for his conduct during the interview. “I apologize for interrupting you so much, sir,” he said. “I was trying to get the most for our buck here.”
Joe Biden apologized to Kaitlan Collins after a press conference
As we’ve noted above, it can be risky for a politician to become combative with a reporter. After all, they’re the ones who determine the way you’re portrayed to the vast majority of voters, so you want them on your side to help get your message out to the country. That’s a lesson that President Joe Biden learned the hard way back in 2021 … or at least, it’s a lesson he might have learned, had he not managed to self-correct.
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The testy exchange in question took place between Biden and CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins, coming during a press conference at the end of a summit in Geneva. Biden spoke about trying to work with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to release American hostages, leading Collins to ask, “Why are you so confident he’ll change his behavior, Mr. President?” Biden was walking off stage, but he turned around and shot back, “I’m not confident he’ll change his behavior. Where the hell … When did I say I was confident?” He walked back toward the reporters, sticking his finger out as he insisted he was simply being realistic with Putin.
Later, Biden approached a throng of reporters to apologize for his response. “I owe my last questioner an apology,” he said. “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy.” Collins accepted, telling her CNN co-hosts, “He did not have to apologize, though I do appreciate that he did.”
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Donald Trump got stuck on ‘person, woman, man, camera, TV’
In the run-up to the 2020 election, there were questions about the cognitive fitness of both then-President Donald Trump and future President Joe Biden. While Biden was quick to shrug off doubts about his mental acuity, Trump was eager to “prove” his critics wrong.
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To that end, Trump went on Fox News to assure everyone that he was as smart and with it as ever. He bragged about having passed a cognitive impairment test, admitting that some of the questions were tough. “The last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question, it’s like, you’ll go, ‘Person, woman, man, camera, TV,'” he said, looking around. “So they say, ‘Could you repeat that?’ So I say, ‘Yeah, so it’s, person, woman, man, camera, TV.’ Okay, that’s very good. If you get it in order, you get extra points.” He repeated the list multiple times throughout the interview, as though that proved his intelligence. What’s more, Trump also speculated about his opponent’s cognitive health. “Now Joe should take that test because something’s going on,” he said.
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Neurologist Ziad Nasreddine, who developed the test, told The Washington Post that Trump’s results had nothing to do with his IQ. “If someone performs well, what it means is they can be ruled out for cognitive impairment that comes with diseases like Alzheimer’s, stroke or multiple sclerosis,” he said. “That’s it.”
George H. W. Bush went to bat with Dan Rather over his record on Iran
Arguing with a reporter can be a risky proposition for a politician. Too forceful, and you seem defensive. Too meek, and you risk having your years of service defined by questions you couldn’t answer. That’s the trouble President George H. W. Bush faced when he appeared on CBS to speak with legendary anchorman Dan Rather. The interview came after a segment about the Iran-Contra scandal, in which the government was revealed to have been selling weapons to Iran to fund rebel militias in Nicaragua. That all happened under the Ronald Reagan administration, when Bush was vice president; by the time he spoke with Rather, Bush was running for the presidency himself.
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The two were on the wrong foot from the very start of the exchange. Bush was unhappy that Rather suggested that he may have known more about Iran-Contra than he told the American people. “I don’t think it’s fair to judge a whole career; it’s not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes where you walked off set in New York?” he asked, referring to an incident where Rather had abandoned the anchor desk in protest of a women’s tennis game cutting into his show. “Would you like that?” he continued. “I have respect for you, but I don’t have respect for what you’re doing here tonight.” Ouch.
Joe Biden’s post-debate interview failed to reassure voters
When President Joe Biden debated former President Donald Trump in June 2024, a five-alarm fire kicked off in the Democratic party. Many constituents felt that Biden lacked energy and clarity, two things that someone really needs when facing off against someone like Trump. There were a lot of concerns about whether or not he would have the strength for the remainder of the campaign, let alone another four years in the White House.
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In an effort to dispel these fears, Biden agreed to an interview with ABC News. Though the sit-down lasted half an hour and was aired with no breaks or interruptions, one of the biggest gaffes came right toward the beginning. Reporter George Stephanopoulos asked, “Did you ever watch the debate afterwards?” The president looked confused as he said, “I don’t think I did, no.” The debate had only taken place a week earlier, so many commenters were concerned that the president seemed unable to recall whether he’d watched it back.
In other words, the interview did very little to quiet critics. A month later, Biden finally withdrew from the race. In a statement posted to social media, including X, formerly Twitter, he wrote, “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down.”
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