Howard Stern revealed that Hillary Clinton’s team had encouraged Joe Biden to appear on his SiriusXM radio show in 2020, after Clinton herself had rebuffed the opportunity in 2016 during her presidential campaign.
Stern’s executive producer said the Biden interview had been four years in the making due to Clinton’s helpful suggestion that it could connect Biden with voters in an election year.
“Believe me, there were a lot of people who were involved in helping this booking from people inferred on all that stuff — but you know who was super helpful on this? Really, really helpful. Hillary Clinton,” executive producer Gary Dell’Abate said.
Stern saw value in interviews that tapped into a politician’s humanity.
Biden’s appearance on Stern’s show coincided with criticism that he favored softer interviews over substantive discussions with mainstream media, as highlighted in a New York Times statement days prior.
“There’s a segment of my audience that really gets turned on to people they thought they hated because we tap into their humanity,” Stern said in 2019. “They were like, ‘[Expletive] Lady Gaga, why are you having her on?’ And then it’s over, and they go, ‘[Expletive] man, I’m going to go see her in concert.'”
“It was just very, very natural and I was moved by the whole conversation … getting an hour with the sitting President of the United States was a great honor,” he said.
However, Biden joked at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that he sat down with strong, influential interviewers like Stern.
“I do interviews with strong independent journalists who millions of people actually listen to, like Howard Stern,” Biden said.
