Biden May, or May Not, Do a Super Bowl Interview With Fox

WASHINGTON — Will he or won’t he?

It remained unclear on Friday if President Biden would sit for an interview with Fox before the Super Bowl on Sunday, potentially breaking a tradition in which presidents have used the event to speak to a large television audience.

Mr. Biden participated when NBC and CBS aired the game. But he balked at this year’s host: Fox, whose cable news network, home to Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, has a less-than-cordial relationship with the current White House.

After weighing a proposal from Fox News for an interview with one of the network’s news anchors, the White House on Friday said that it had made alternate arrangements: an interview with Fox Soul, a relatively obscure streaming channel aimed at Black audiences. But Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a post on Twitter that the Fox Corporation had intervened and canceled it.

Hours later, Fox representatives said the Biden interview would go forward.

“After the White House reached out to Fox Soul Thursday evening, there was some initial confusion,” the corporation said in a statement. “Fox Soul looks forward to interviewing the president for Super Bowl Sunday.”

The White House had no immediate comment on that statement, and by Friday afternoon, Mr. Biden’s team had still not publicly committed to the Fox Soul appearance.

The outreach to Fox Soul appeared to be an effort by the White House to sidestep the news anchors on Fox News, but evade criticism for dodging an interview.

Launched in 2020, Fox Soul is operated by a division of Fox that oversees the company’s broadcast TV affiliates. It has no editorial overlap with Fox News, the No. 1-rated cable news network. The channels are not comparable in terms of audience; for instance, Fox News has 23.7 million followers on Twitter, and Fox Soul has 7,000.

The prospective Fox Soul interview with Mr. Biden would be conducted by Mike Hill, a Fox Sports broadcaster, and Vivica A. Fox, a Black actress and television host, a White House official said.

Tensions have simmered between the Biden White House and Fox News, whose marquee conservative hosts regularly assail the president, his agenda and his family. Any prospective interview before the Super Bowl would likely have been conducted by a news anchor like Bret Baier or Martha MacCallum rather than an opinion host like Mr. Carlson.

Still, high-profile members of Mr. Biden’s cabinet have gone on Fox News in the past. Gene Sperling, a senior adviser, appeared on Ms. MacCallum’s program on Wednesday evening. Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, regularly appears on the network.

In 2018, former President Donald J. Trump declined an interview with NBC, which was broadcasting that year’s Super Bowl.

Mr. Baier brought up Mr. Biden’s lack of responsiveness during Fox News’s State of the Union coverage on Tuesday night. “We have formally asked for that interview, but we have not received an answer yet, whether they are going to officially do it or not,” Mr. Baier told viewers. “We are running out of days.”

Harold Ford Jr., a Fox News co-host and former Democratic congressman, told Mr. Baier that he hoped the White House would play ball. “He should accept the invitation,” he said of Mr. Biden. “It’s a tradition that should be continued.”