A global pandemic has forced Joe Biden to wage a presidential campaign from his home in Delaware—where he says he hasn’t yet been tested for the coronavirus. As Democrats question whether his campaign is doing enough to inject himself into the national conversation, Biden’s team insists that he can be on any screen he wants, whenever he wants—even if he can’t pose for selfies in person.
On Wednesday, Biden took his campaign to another corner of the internet, appearing on Good Luck America, Snapchat’s daily political show hosted by Peter Hamby. For all the questions about the 77-year-old’s digital savvy, this week’s interview marks his third appearance on the Snapchat show since 2016. We’re posting Hamby’s full Q&A here, which has been lightly edited.
Vanity Fair: Hello, sir, thanks for joining us.
Joe Biden: Thanks for having me.
So did you crush a Peloton workout this morning?
No, no, this morning I just lifted a little bit. Jill [Biden] occupied the Peloton this morning.
I want to start off with a couple of questions about the youth vote. It needs to be said that not every young person, every voter under 30, is a Bernie [Sanders] supporter. But there is a prevailing narrative out there among young progressives that you and [Donald] Trump are kind of indistinguishable. It reminds me of the 2000 election, and [George] Bush and [Al] Gore were running against each other, and the young left, a lot of whom voted for [Ralph] Nader, thought the other two guys were the same. What do you say to the 19-year-old out there who thinks that you’re just the lesser of two evils?
Well, first of all, the data doesn’t show that, as you know. There was a large, large survey done by John Della Volpe up at Harvard [that] shows we have as much authenticity—we’re viewed as being authentic and bringing excitement as Bernie did. But now look, here’s where I come down. Young people want the truth and they want authenticity. No one doubts I mean what I say. I sometimes say more than I mean, but no one doubts I mean what I say. And younger Americans have had a really tough run of it. Millennials came of age defined by 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, losing 80,000-odd jobs a month. Generation Z has grown up at a time of school shootings, crushing student debt, broken politics. So, attacking student debt, making college affordable—start by immediately forgiving a minimum of $10,000 in student debt, [making] two-year community college free, four-year public college for families making under $25,000 free, tackling climate. There’s a whole range of things that I think can be done that not only get us out of this mess in terms of recovery as we get to the recovery stage, but deal with the institutional problems that exist and have existed for some time.
Speaking of Harvard, the Shorenstein Center up at Harvard did an analysis of all of the anti-Biden memes out there on the internet. According to them, the top three slogans they’re seeing, this is from the left and the right, are Dementia Joe, Sleepy Joe, Creepy Joe. Barack Obama reportedly said last week that his daughters had been showing him anti-Biden TikToks. Basically, there’s an entire discourse on the internet right now that’s painting you as creepy and old and out of touch and kind of lame. How do you fight back against that?
