In an intensely visual news world, a seismic week of politics was transformed again in an instant on Sunday by something almost old-fashioned: a printed statement.
President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not run for a second term was placed on his social media feed at 1:46 p.m. ET, followed 33 minutes later by an endorsement from his vice president, Kamala Harris. Still recovering from COVID, the president did not appear on camera. Which meant, for the media, few or no visual resources.
There was also virtually no warning, leading to initial concerns that the president’s X feed had been hacked. The Associated Press recorded a “flash” alert at 1:54 p.m. Eastern Time. Television networks interrupted programming between 1:50 pm (Fox News Channel) and 2:04 pm (ABC).
It was, wrote the Associated Press, “a late-season campaign coup unlike any other in American history.” CBS News analyst Ashley Etienne called it “an incredible day in American history.”
After a week saturated with the endlessly repeated and analyzed video of former President Donald Trump being shot at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, and the carefully choreographed four-day Republican National Convention television program that followed it, here was a Dramatic news that lacked the visual element in almost every way.
Cable news programs, especially when covering live events or breaking news, rely on video of a scene and its aftermath to provide the important connecting thread between the talk shows and the anchors’ updates. With no video on Sunday other than “b-roll” or old footage of Biden, news channels had to move elsewhere.
But they still had to struggle to find people who could talk about it. CBS White House correspondent Ed Keefe sounded out of breath when he was reached on the phone. Because it was a summer Sunday afternoon, the first TV news sequence was not immediately available, providing opportunities for ABC’s Rachel Scott, CBS’s Kristine Johnson and NBC’s Hallie Jackson to anchor the initial reports.
As the news arrived, others interrupted their weekends to rush to an office — Wolf Blitzer at CNN, John Roberts at Fox News Channel, Rachel Maddow at MSNBC. ABC and CBS spent more time on the story than NBC, which switched after half an hour to NASCAR coverage.
Biden’s former White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, was in a studio after finishing her Sunday show, putting her in place to break the news about her former boss.
The networks quickly started talking about a Harris-Trump general election showdown, even before Harris announced — again, via a printed statement — about two hours after Biden’s endorsement that she would be running.
“See how quickly politics moves,” ABC’s Terry Moran said by phone. “Joseph Biden, after 50 years in politics in which he reached the highest level, is now yesterday’s news.”
The day recalled March 31, 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson shocked the country at the end of a 40-minute televised address to the nation by saying, “I will not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party. for another term as its president.”
That came as a complete surprise compared to the seemingly endless discussion that has engulfed the political world over the past three weeks over whether Biden, 81, could effectively continue as a candidate after his disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump.
But Biden repeatedly and emphatically insisted he would stay in the race, and Sunday morning political talk shows featured surrogates pushing that line. “He’s going to do what the American people need him to do, and that’s defeat Donald Trump,” Cedric Richmond, Biden’s campaign co-chair, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Several reporters talked about how even Biden’s White House and campaign team members were caught off guard by the announcement. Biden is expected to address the country later in the week.
TV political junkies have become almost giddy at the prospect of the news that will be created up to and including the Democratic national convention, which is set to begin Aug. 19 in Chicago.
“This is going to be a truly incredible and historic race to the end,” said Mary Bruce, White House correspondent for ABC News.
Said Fox News commentator Dana Perino: “The politics over the next four weeks are going to be absolutely insane.”
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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him on http://twitter.com/dbauder.
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