Joe Biden finally did a one-on-one interview — and got the softball treatment from Scott Pelley. How did Pelley not follow up on Biden’s declaration about the end of the pandemic and the end of mask-wearing? Power Line’s Scott Johnson concurs:

I would be embarrassed to conduct an interview with the president that was as lame as Scott Pelley’s lovefest with President Biden on 60 Minutes last night. The Biden administration accorded Pelley a substantial amount of time to chat with Biden and Pelley returned the favor with a variety of softballs and dropped balls as well as his own apologetics — to no one’s surprise, of course, but still. It was an embarrassment.

CBS has posted the transcript here. NewsBusters covers the Biden segments in “State-Run TV: 60 Minutes Drools Over Biden in Syrupy Interview.”

The lack of follow-up questions was one striking feature of the interview. You’d almost think that Pelley himself doesn’t follow the news. He appears to be somewhat less knowledgeable than the average voter.

Even beyond that, however, Biden simply didn’t look or sound as though he was up to the task. He didn’t exactly get lost, but Biden clearly was making up ideas and policies as he went along, much to the consternation of the White House. What’s more, Biden’s elitist and snide remarks about the very real impact of inflation on American households — “It’s just an inch” — belies his fake Scranton Joe persona.

In other words, enjoy this while it lasts, because it may be a long while before Biden’s handlers put him out front again in a one-on-one interview, even with someone as gentle as Pelley.

Update: This is embarrassing:

He may be the world’s most powerful man but the apparent late arrival of the US president, Joe Biden, and his wife, Jill, was not allowed to disrupt the finely tuned choreography of the late Queen’s funeral.

Rather than being ushered immediately to their seats on their arrival at Westminster Abbey, the first couple, aged 79 and 71, had to be gently told they would need to stand and wait as a procession of George and Victoria Cross-holders went ahead of them down the nave of the abbey. …

After arriving hand in hand, the Bidens finally sat down in their places in the abbey at 10.05am. The schedule published by Buckingham Palace suggested the 500 invited dignitaries should have been seated between 9.35am and 9.55am.

Perhaps as a consequence of opting out of the buses taking other leaders from the assembly point at Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Bidens were also given seats 14 rows back in the south transept of the abbey.

The US president took his seat behind Andrzej Duda, the president of Poland, and in front of Petr Fiala, the prime minister of the Czech Republic. Sitting to her husband’s left, Jill Biden sat next to Ignazio Cassis, the president of Switzerland.

I posted a commentary from Cockburn in the headlines, but wanted to add a couple of words. There are good security reasons for using The Beast and separate transport, but then it behooves the president to leave enough time for transit through London. The funeral is the only reason for Biden to be there at all. How difficult would it have been to leave a half-hour earlier, and then just wait in The Beast if they got there a few minutes earlier?

Ugh.

All of this and more is in today’s episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! In it, I review our top stories this morning and discuss:

• How Joe Biden lied about inflation
• Why he told the truth about the pandemic by accident, and what a disaster that will be for the White House
• Once again blew our strategic ambiguity over Taiwan, forcing the White House to retract Biden’s statements — again
• Somehow maintained his own strategic ambiguity about his plans for 2024
• Developments in Ukraine and Russia
• The bizarre shop teacher in Ontario

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!