President Obama is traveling on the taxpayer’s dime to New York City on Wednesday to tape an interview for ABC’s daytime talk show “The View.” The show has not scheduled any Republican leaders for equal time leading up to the midterm elections in November.
Given the show’s large, female audience and timing with elections, Obama’s choice to appear on “The View” appears politically motivated. Obama will discuss “his administration’s accomplishments, jobs, the economy, the Gulf oil spill, and family life inside the White House,” according to an ABC statement.
ABC asserts that Obama’s appearance is in context of its “‘Red, White & View’ campaign which is committed to political guests and discussions.” The campaign is billed as “interviews and informational segments that helped promote civic responsibility during the election season.” ABC spokesman Karl Nilsson calls the series “an umbrella campaign for ‘The View’ that has been in effect since 2008.”
Nilsson tells Human Events in an email that the ABC election series has included “literally every political candidate that has been on the show since then (vp joe biden, president clinton, vp al gore, to name a few).” Vice President Biden was interviewed at length on the show in May.
“Its [a] very balanced show,” Nilsson emails.
So, when was a Republican last on “Red, White & View”? March,when former GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson were interviewed.
Does ABC have any Republican booked on the show between now and the midterm elections? No.
Bottom line, there has been no Republican on the show to counterbalance the lengthy airtime given Biden and Obama on political issues relevant to the election.
Meanwhile, Obama is being criticized by his own party for the decision. “I think the President of the United States has to go on serious shows,” Gov. Ed Rendell (D.-Pa.) said on MSNBC Tuesday. “I wouldn’t put him on Jerry Springer either.”
Barbara Walters, the producer and host of “The View” disagrees with Rendell’s assessment of her show. In a statement, Walters says that Obama’s appearance demonstrates that the President believes the entertainment show “is an influential and important source of information and news.”
Rendell is the former chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, who is term-limited this year and politically ambitious. “I’m not sure he has to go on ‘The View’ to be open to questions,” he said. When called for comment, the governor’s spokesman Gary Tuma told Human Events that Rendell “typically stands by what he says.”
After taping the show (to air Thursday), Obama will attend two DNC hosted political fundraisers New York City, one hosted by Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour.
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