Biden interview with '60 Minutes' marks first on-air sit-down with American journalist in seven months

close

Video

Biden sits down with '60 Minutes' for first American TV interview in months

President Biden discusses the negotiations to avert the major rail strike with CBS's Scott Pelley.

CBS Mornings previewed the network’s exclusive "60 Minutes" interview with President Joe Biden, which happens to be the first interview that Biden has had with an American TV journalist in over 200 days.

The CBS interview, which airs this Sunday, features Biden one-on-one with CBS correspondent Scott Pelley. The last time Biden had one of these interviews with a U.S. TV journalist was on February 10, with NBC anchor Lester Holt.

The interview marks the season premiere of "60 Minutes"and according to "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King, Pelley and the president "will talk about a wide range of issues including some good news, the deal to avoid a potentially disastrous strike by America’s railway workers."

BIDEN GOES MORE THAN 100 DAYS WITHOUT MAINSTREAM MEDIA INTERVIEW: 'HIS HANDLERS ARE PETRIFIED'

"CBS Mornings" previewed the Sunday night "60 Minutes" interview with President Joe Biden on Friday.

The segment provided a snippet of the interview featuring Pelley lauding the commander-in-chief for averting the strike. With gravitas, Pelley addressed Biden, "Mr. President, you have just averted a nationwide railroad strike that would have been crippling to the economy. How did you do that and what were those last hours like in the negotiations?"

"Well look," Biden responded, "We brought business and labor together." Touting his accomplishment, he added, "They both sat down in my view, and they were in the office today, saying, ‘Well we finally figured out this is fair on both sides.’"

"And it took that time to focus," Biden claimed, noting that "the alternative was just not thinkable."

"If in fact they had gone on strike, the supply chains in this country would’ve come to a screeching halt, and we would have seen a real economic crisis," he declared.  

As Fox News Digital reported in late August, President Biden "has not sat down with an individual American correspondent on television since he spoke to NBC’s Lester Holt on Feb. 10, prior to the Super Bowl." In the two weeks since that report, that fact hasn’t changed. 

CRITICS HIGHLIGHT BIDEN DOING JUST ONE SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW IN RECENT MONTHS

President Biden's upcoming interview with "60 Minutes" marks his first TV interview with an American journalist in over 200 days.  (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)

Even Biden’s sit down with Holt "was a rarity at the time. His February chat with the ‘NBC Nightly News’ host was the president’s first major media appearance in nearly four months," Fox reported.

The outlet reported that Biden appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in June and "recently taped an appearance with Jay Leno for a chat about his "old Corvette" and electric cars for CNBC’s ‘Jay Leno’s Garage.’" But still, the President had not done a TV interview with an American journalist since February.

Fox also noted, "Over the past 200 days, Biden has given only four other interviews besides his sit-down with Kimmel. He spoke to Israel TV reporter Yonit Levi, the Associated Press’ Josh Boak, Substack author Heather Cox Richardson and progressive podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen."

The last time Biden had a TV interview with an American journalist was with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt in February. (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.