The Failed Joe Biden Show

Why Biden matters more than Trump

ABC News Chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl’s new book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show has got a lot of press for its revelations about the January 6 coup. But as I said to Karl, when he came on KEEN ON this week (see below), Jan 6 is anything but the final act of the Trump show. Like COVID or Lost or The Mousetrap, this thing is going to run and run.

Then there’s the Joe Biden show which is failing for all the reasons that the Trump Show is so successfully never ending. Biden’s gerontocratic show lacks the three essential qualities of network political drama: endless twists and turns, compelling heroes & villains, and a coherent narrative. So it’s going to get killed/pulled at the earliest opportunity - which, as I suggested to Karl, is why it’s ultimately more politically interesting than the Trump show.

Fortunately, nobody is pulling KEEN ON. The daily show, my show, is, in fact, going from strength to strength with over a million downloads for 2021 already. In addition to this week’s conversation about the Trump Show, I also spoke to Jay Parini about Jose Luis Borges, Gioia Dilliberto about Coco Chanel and David Mikics about Stanley Kubrick.

If you like these kinds of conversations, please subscribe to the audio podcast or follow me on Twitter, where you watch all the show live. And please also email me with ideas about people (including yourself) who you think I should have on the show.