There’s another way Joe Biden is already acting like the president

Ever wondered how journalists keep up with the latest news on Donald Trump, even if they’re not there in person?

There is the president’s Twitter feed, of course, which he blasts out to 61.6 million followers. Then there’s live TV of press conferences and the like.

Another tool is the White House press pool report. It’s been a tradition reaching back years that the media accompanies the president 24/7 and that a small pool of journalists, representing print, radio and TV, are on hand should something happen. In the early days of the Trump presidency, he angered “the pool” a couple of times by sneaking off to an NYC steakhouse without telling them.

Some times there’s plenty of news for the pool. Other times, very little.

When expected business of the day is done, the White House announces “a lid”, meaning they expect no more major developments.

When DC is gripped by speculation the US is about to drop bombs on a foreign country, reporters often look to see if “the lid’s been called”, or whether the journalists who cover the Pentagon have gone home.

What’s this got to do with Joe Biden?

As you know, the former vice president wants to become president. One of the strategies he has tried to adopt, to set him apart from his Democratic rivals, is to start acting like a president.

By seeking to avoid intra-party scrapping, he hoped to project an image of someone already focused on getting the country back on track. (That plan went rather astray during the first primary debates when Kamala Harris attacked him over his record on race relations.)

Another way Biden has been trying to seem presidential is by having his own press pool. All the major candidates – Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, Harris and others – have reporters assigned to cover them every day. But Biden appears to be the only one with a pool report, distributed to any media group who signs up.

Last weekend, for example, Biden was in Seattle, at fundraising events with members of the tech industry. The events were private but, thanks to the pool report filed by Jim Brunner of the The Seattle Times, I knew Biden spent more than an hour at the Medina home of Jon Shirley, a former president of Microsoft.

Biden defended comments he made stressing the need to work with those you don’t agree with. “Guess what? The ability to persuade matters,” he said. “To make a logical case.”

Will this trick work? Who knows? But at least the media – and, therefore, you the reader – are kept informed of what he’s up to.

Yours,

Andrew Buncombe

Chief US correspondent