We’ve written often about how frequently President Biden’s handlers step in to intervene on his behalf in order to keep him from answering questions from the press. It started on the campaign trail in 2020, when then-candidate for president Biden was shielded from broader media scrutiny thanks in no small part to the “basement strategy” employed by his aides, ostensibly on grounds that it was safer for all involved because of the coronavirus pandemic.
But hiding Biden in the basement quickly devolved into something worse. After he started reappearing in public for what boiled down to canned photo ops in the weeks leading up to the presidential election, Biden’s handlers were seen loudly herding reporters away from him and his vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris like cattle as random questions were desperately shouted in hopes of receiving an answer.
Though Biden made promising to restore “respect” between the White House and the press a key pledge of his campaign, it quickly became clear post-inauguration that his supposed commitment to doing so was a lie, that the “respect” he was really talking about was what conservatives have come to know as the “love-love” relationship the White House press corps typically has with Democratic administrations.
Here we are now some two years after Biden said freedom of the press was a hallmark of democracy or whatever and his handlers are still doing their thing, except they’ve reportedly gotten even more aggressive the closer we get to the crucial November midterm elections, as the Washington Times reported:
White House press handlers pushed reporters out of the State Dining room on Monday as journalists shouted questions at an unresponsive President Biden at a meeting with advisers on economic competition.
Mr. Biden ignored a variety of questions, including the war in Ukraine and the economy, as his press team began shooing reporters from the room. Some reporters were pushed, according to a pool report by a Washington Post reporter in the room, as the White House handlers attempted to remove them.
That Washington Post reporter was Matt Viser, who filed this pool report Monday on the alleged incidents of reporters being pushed:
The pool was in the State Dining room for about 12 minutes as POTUS delivered remarks about efforts to increase competition and attempt to lower fees for consumers.
He ignored repeated questions on various topics at the end, as wranglers attempted to get reporters to leave. Some reporters were pushed as the wranglers tried to stifle their questions and get them out of the room.
At last check, there was no mention of reporters being physically pushed away from Biden on the Washington Post’s website nor on Viser’s Twitter feed, which is rather strange considering their infamous “democracy dies in darkness” masthead.
Just words? Apparently. Now if this had happened with Trump’s press people, we’d see a Code Red in Media World with cable news and print news outlets alike using every tool at their disposal – their websites, their social media feeds, their newsletters, etc. to get the word out as to the dangers of a president’s handlers forcibly containing the members of the media who were there to question him. But I digress.
I should point out that this isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Biden’s handlers getting physically aggressive with the MSM to protect the president from their questions:
… but with the election being just a few short weeks away and Biden supposedly being on the “comeback trail” according to his apologists in the press, you’d think he’d be made more available to them to tout his alleged accomplishments and to push the Democratic agenda, right?
Wrong, because this is Captain Gaffetastic we’re talking about here, who notoriously gets so off track when he appears in public that his handlers have been known to gesture the president himself away from those he is speaking to (remember the embarrassing Easter Bunny incident earlier this year?). In other instances, some of his public speaking engagements have actually been canceled in order to avoid any slips that his people may have to walk back later.
But while Biden’s handlers getting even more physical with journalists is indeed disturbing, what’s even more troubling is why they likely feel the need to do so – and why Biden presumably allows them to do so. The reasons revolve around questions of competency, coherency, and fitness to lead, all three of which Joe Biden has been in short supply of since Day One of his presidency, and all of which have fueled wild speculation over his 2024 intentions, something Biden himself and his handlers have yet to declare.
Flashback: A Petulant Joe Biden Makes a Cowardly Move in Presser Held After GDP News