‘Nightly’ anchor Lester Holt to interview Biden

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt has booked a sit-down interview with President Joe Biden.

The interview is scheduled to be taped Monday, July 15, 2024, and will air the same evening on NBC and its streamer.

Portions of the interview will air on “Nightly” at 6:30 p.m. eastern on July 15, with a primetime special airing at 9 p.m. featuring an extended version. 

NBC News also plans to post the full transcript of the interview online. 

This latest interview corresponds with the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and NBC is promoting coverage of that alongside the interview special.

The interview will be Biden’s second major TV interview since his poor debate performance June 27, 2024, and comes during a time when there is increased pressure within his own party to step aside as the Democratic presidential nominee. 

It will be the first major TV interview for Biden after a July 11, 2024, NATO summit press conference that was closely watched amid growing concerns on both sides of the aisle about the president’s age and ability to continue to serve as president. 

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos landed Biden’s first major TV interview after the debate, which aired July 5, 2024.

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That interview was taped July 5 and had been originally was going to air July 7, 2024, but ABC later changed its plans amid concerns over timeliness and transparency, and aired it the same day, like NBC plans to do.

The network also posted an unedited transcript of its interview.

An estimated 8.5 million people watched ABC’s interview special, only a fraction of the 51.27 million who watched the debate.

Biden has sat for six formal interviews with news networks since taking office in 2021, which is one of the lowest tallies in recent history for  sit-down interviews. Biden also trails other recent presidents in press conference counts.

According to presidential scholar Martha Joynt Kumar, Biden has done around 126 sit-down interviews, phone interviews and off-the-record meals with journalists during his single term, which is still under way. George W. Bush had 166 of these types of press interactions during his two terms. 

However, Biden has extensively used informal interviews with a pool of reporters that were also popular during Donald Trump’s time in office. So far he’s done over 580 of these types of sessions, compared to Trump’s 664 over a single complete term.