Posted on 09/08/2021 9:59:48 AM PDT by Red Badger
JOE BIDEN often thinks he’s his own best messenger. Many people in his own White House don’t always agree.
When Biden gives public remarks, some White House staffers will either mute him or turn off his remarks, according to White House officials.
It’s not that they’re indifferent to what their boss has to say. Indeed, their livelihoods are directly invested in it. Rather, they’re filled with anxiety that he’s going to take questions from the press and veer off the West Wing’s carefully orchestrated messaging.
“I know people who habitually don’t watch it live for that reason,” said one current official.
Biden’s advisers have urged him to answer fewer of the questions being shouted at him by reporters covering his events. While the president sometimes obliges and quickly leaves the podium after remarks, he has a tendency to buck those staffers trying to rein him in. “I’m not supposed to take any questions, but go ahead,” he said after addressing FEMA the other week.
“A lot of times, we say, ‘Don’t take questions,'” press secretary JEN PSAKI told Democratic strategist DAVID AXELROD on his podcast in the spring. “But he’s going to do what he wants to do because he’s the president of the United States.”
Biden is well-aware of his reputation as a “gaffe machine.” On the campaign trail, he’d often make a self-deprecating quip: “No one ever doubts that I mean what I say. The problem is, I sometimes say all that I mean.” He has also suggested, however, that his loquaciousness earns him credit from voters who appreciate his authenticity.
The 2020 election may have proved Biden’s point. But lately, his verbal miscues have been causing headaches for him and his team. Biden has delivered several self-inflicted wounds during freewheeling Q&A sessions that required immediate clean-up. On Afghanistan, he told reporters that a Taliban takeover of the country was “highly unlikely,” said Al Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan when it wasn’t, and declared that he’d seen “no question of our credibility” from allies when there had been a lot.
Biden has even flubbed scripted remarks, such as when he said the administration had evacuated 90 percent of Americans from Afghanistan when he was supposed to say 98 percent.
Some Biden veterans say the string of verbal faux pas are not a total surprise. In Biden’s Senate days, he loved talking reporters ears off to try to make them understand his point. He infamously put his foot in his mouth when talking about BARACK OBAMA’s appeal during the 2008 primary then did it again when, as VP, he endorsed gay marriage before Obama got to that point. The former nearly sank him. The latter placed him on the right side of history.
To this day, Biden seems almost delighted by the prospect of tussling with the reporters that often gather in front of him, such as when he challenged Fox News’ PETER DOOCY to contemplate alternative drawdown scenarios for Afghanistan.
This makes for the occasional high-wire act for the White House, which officially, on record, loves it.
“As the President has shown over and over since he announced his candidacy more than two years ago, he’s the most effective communicator for his vision and his agenda,” rapid response director MIKE GWIN said in an email. “The President deeply values the role of the press – that’s why he regularly takes time to answer their questions in interviews, press conferences, and the dozens of media availabilities he’s done since taking office.”
Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you RACHEL WALLACE?
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OH Yeah...
“When Biden gives public remarks, some White House staffers will either mute him or turn off his remarks”
that’s insane! how are they gonna know which lies to correct after his speeches if they do that?
Hey, its the American Way! Graft, corruption and malfeasance in office pays handsomely.
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