Hillary Clinton made this possible

Howard Stern

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Of President Joe Biden’s countless jokes and jokes at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner — including around the thorny issue of his age and aimed at former President Donald Trump — one joke in particular referenced a notable recent move by his campaign.

As he spoke to a crowd of media figures, A-list celebrities and Beltway power brokers who had just wrapped up their dinner, Biden began serving up one punchline after another. About halfway through his fifteen years of age, the president referred to his recent conversation with radio host Howard Stern.

“I have higher standards,” Biden said from the podium. “I do interviews with strong independent journalists that millions of people actually listen to… like Howard Stern.”

The maddening of Stern’s journalistic credibility landed on the audience, which, despite the spectacle of the star-studded event, is meant to honor the courage, tenacity and perseverance of some of the country’s best reporters. But appearing on the former shock jock’s SiriusXM show could actually be a huge turnout opportunity for any presidential candidate — especially for Biden, who has generally conducted interviews with far fewer media and journalists (or Stern-like personalities) than his recent predecessors during his three years in the Oval Office.

The power of a sitdown in his show has been touted by Stern for years. He explained this while talking about his brutal 2016 campaign to get Hillary Clinton in his studio.

“I thought if I interviewed Hillary, she would reach a new audience,” Stern said when he appeared on 2019 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “What if Hillary had come along and forgotten about politics for a moment, but what if we could have talked about her humanity, why she came into public service?” The longtime radio host believed this would have helped “humanize” Clinton, whose even longer life in public service left him wondering “a million questions” about her honest thoughts and the life she led.

That interview eventually took place. But not until December 2019, six months after Stern’s comments to Colbert. Although it didn’t win her the presidency, Stern was right that their extended meeting did a lot to open her up to letting the world know more about her. The two discussed Trump, her crushing 2016 election loss, her romance with husband Bill and, in a true revelation, exactly what former President George W. Bush whispered to her during Trump’s 2020 inauguration speech that caused her face to light up (Bush apparently leaned in) in, saying “Well, that was some weird shit”).

Knowing this, it may not be surprising to now learn that Clinton took it upon himself to please the Democratic incumbent and assist in the president’s interview with Stern, as confirmed on Monday’s episode of Stern’s closing show about Biden.

Executive producer Gary Dell’Abate told Stern: “Believe me, there were a lot of people involved in helping this booking, distracted from all those things, but you know who was super helpful with this? Really very useful. Hillary Clinton.”

When Stern responded that he didn’t know, Dell’Abate added: “Her people really let Biden’s people know that this was a good place to be.”

Dell’Abate said the interview was four years in the making, but “it probably got really serious about three months ago, and once it was done, man, it moved at warp speed.”

Whether it will open Stern Nation up to support a second Biden administration remains to be seen.

How influential is Howard Stern in 2024, more than thirty years after he achieved household name status and declared himself “king of all media” (at the time, this media also included pay-per-view and VHS tapes)? His following is certainly undeniable: a record-breaking contract with SiriusXM led to him creating two channels, Howard 100 and Howard 101. His contract has been extended and his die-hard followers are fans for life – as Stern explained The Hollywood Reporter in 2019.

Stern was an outspoken supporter of Clinton, both in 2008 and again in 2016. But he said he saw before others how difficult it would be for her to defeat Trump. He said his listeners were all over the country, and in that last piece he saw that Hillary was disconnected from them. “There is a segment of my audience that is really drawn to people they thought they hated because we tap into their humanity. They said, ‘Fuck Lady Gaga, why are you wearing her?’ And then it’s over and they’re like, ‘Shit man, I’m going to her concert,'” he said.

His good friend Jimmy Kimmel agreed, as he wrote THR in a 2017 op-ed: “The foundation laid by years of refusal to compromise is strong, and as a result, Howard’s interviews with movie stars, comedians, musicians and politicians go deeper and further than any broadcast before.”

If Stern’s in-depth interview with President Biden succeeds in getting a significant percentage of the good people of Stern Nation into the sitting president’s column, his opponent may want to consider booking some interviews.