Posted on 08/20/2021 3:36:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
The very supportive media environment around President Joe Biden has turned suddenly sour over this administration's shoddy handling of Afghanistan. This debacle shouldn't be buried and ignored by the press, like they've tried to do with the border crisis. But Biden's gone back to hiding as a strategy, as he did in his 2020 presidential campaign.
For four days, the president disappeared from public view. Then he gave a speech on Aug. 16, took no questions and retreated again. His only engagement with the press in the last week was an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, best known as a loyal press adviser to former President Bill Clinton.
This is strange behavior in a crisis, but it's not atypical. Back in May, press secretary Jen Psaki admitted to her pal David Axelrod that Biden "takes questions nearly every day he's out from the press. That is not something we recommend. In fact, a lot of times we say, 'Don't take questions.'"
It's not like journalists are out to get him, as they obviously were out to destroy former President Donald Trump. But risk avoidance is everything.
Mark Knoller, a former CBS White House reporter, tweeted that Biden's chat with Stephanopoulos was his ninth news interview over more than 200 days of his presidency. Knoller compared that count to Trump's 50 interviews and former President Barack Obama's 113 interviews. You can stipulate that Obama's "news interviews" were often soft-serve events, but there's no question that Biden is remarkably stingy with the access.
Washington Post "fact checker" Glenn Kessler tweeted that Biden had done zero "print interviews," and then added that Knoller corrected him: Biden granted interviews to New York Times columnist David Brooks and Atlantic correspondent Edward-Isaac Dovere.
Dovere is the sycophant who asked him in a press conference last September about his magazine's sleazy story claiming that Trump mocked our war dead as losers. He asked Biden about the dreadful state of Trump's soul, and quoted Democrat mouthpiece Khizr Khan claiming, "President Trump's life is a testament to selfishness, and his soul is that of a coward."
It is Biden today who looks like a coward, afraid of a press corps that overwhelmingly voted for him. Democrats don't like wild speculation about Biden going senile and needing 25th Amendment intervention -- although they energetically pushed that under Trump. Hiding the president behind the curtain isn't boosting confidence.
Jim Geraghty of National Review had a strong impression after the Stephanopoulos interview hit the airwaves: "The obvious answer to why Biden rarely appears on camera or takes questions is because every time he does it, he inflicts more damage upon himself and his agenda."
Geraghty found his responses to criticism have sounded like selfishness: "The president whose empathy is endlessly touted now sounds cold and dismissive when asked about Afghans' desperately crowding into American planes or falling to their deaths."
Biden expects the media to act like "the help" and tolerate his press-avoidance strategy, and change the subject to other less disturbing topics. New York Times White House reporter Peter Baker tweeted: "The Biden team's cold political calculation is that Americans won't care what happens in Afghanistan as long as Americans are safe. To their point, today there are no front-page stories on Afghanistan in cities like Boston, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Fresno or Miami."
Every Democrat makes the political calculation that most media outlets will attempt to carefully manage the "news" into an agreeable shape. And every Republican expects that most media outlets will attempt to sink them. Walking away from the Afghanistan story will make the press look as cold and dismissive as Biden.
Biden is using reprehensible Democrat tactics........trademarks of the conniving Clintons.
Whenever damaging info surfaced, the opportunistic Clinton response to extricate themselves was always, “Thats old news.”
Biden dismissed images of falling bodies from planes: “That was four days ago, five days ago!” he said in the ABC News interview (two days after the incident occurred).
We need a nurimburg type trial for the leading destroyers of america, including the clintoons, the bidens, pelousi, schumer, et al.
Biden is an idiot and moron and should not be allowed to occupy the People’s house.
Abc edited out comments on Beau that show biden is going downhill fast
It’s Nuremburg (Nuernberg) to be exact. Just saying. You are correct though, That’s what is needed.
So my spelling sucks, i hate spell check, turned it off.
Why am I not surprised? There is definitely a reason why I don’t watch that channel.
More than that. Nothing in the Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, The Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Albuquerque Journal (has World News section and NOTHING on Afghanistan). Looks like China bought out all of the media here.
He has no use for American media thats all. It’s just that he doesn’t work for us. He’s not afraid of the media or us.
I remember a school trip my school made by train to the Nuremberg Tier garden. (Animal garden) Many parents went on the trip including my parents. Here is one picture of the animal garden
I automatically do spellcheck because I can not type without looking at the keyboard when I type.
You can say I am clumsy. So I see the typos right away when I make them, and can correct them
The NYT, LA Times and NY Post have articles about Afghanistan on the “front page” on their websites. The Chicago Tribune and Miami Herald have nothing, and nothing that I can even find. Good Lord.
Interesting. Thank you for that. When i was on active duty we pulled into Bremerhaevin, and i am not sure of that spelling. That was very fun.
Well he shouldn’t be there in the first place. Maybe these audit results will make him retreat to the bunker and stay.
Are the media starting to turn to Harris? Is Harris the one we want to be the first woman Prez? She might ruin it for women for years after...
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