By Dave Andrusko
A couple of weeks ago I asked why President Biden chose April 25 to announced he was running for a second term? Why not before or after? Why that particular day? I subsequently learned it was four years ago to the day when he announced his candidacy for President.
I ask the same question of the editorial board of Washington Post. Why did they choose today to ever so gentle chastise the President: “Biden no longer does press conferences. That’s not acceptable.”
Clearly the most important 12 words of the 380 word long editorial was the last sentence: “Pick up the microphone, Mr. President. The media is not your enemy.”
“Not your enemy.” No kidding?
No Republican candidate could have run his campaign from the safety of his or her basement. They would have filleted by the press.
There is no way President Biden could have survived the litany of verbal gaffes—during the campaign and even more so since he became President– were he a Republican. The Washington Post would have been turned him into mincemeat.
The economy is in deep trouble—which would have been on the front pages of every major publication–were Biden a Republican. The New York Times would have trained their heaviest guns and used their sharpest knives on him.
Collective, the media heavyweights would have gleefully reduced Biden to smithereens—if he were a Republican.
“So far in 2023, Mr. Biden has done zero solo news conferences,” the editorial reads. “He did conduct two ‘joint news conferences’ in which the president and a visiting foreign leader faced the media together. It should not take a visit from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for the American public to hear the president answering urgent questions from a free press. Presidents also typically interact informally with the media, answering a few questions on the way to an event. Mr. Biden doesn’t do many of those exchanges either, according to the American Presidency Project tracker.”
The editorial gives him a partial out for his vanishing act:
It is widely known that Mr. Biden is gaffe-prone and that news conferences are not his forte.
Only to take right back…
as he runs for a second term, he should be eager to show he can handle all aspects of the job.
But, of course, that is precisely the reason he doesn’t do interviews, let alone press conferences. When he does assemble the press, it ends badly:
It happened again on Monday. Mr. Biden appeared alongside Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to brief reporters on new efforts to force airlines to compensate passengers when a flight is canceled. As soon as his remarks ended, Mr. Biden turned and walked off, ignoring questions from reporters. This comes after the president claimed Friday that he was doing a “major press conference” that evening. In reality, he was doing an MSNBC interview.
Sarah D. sarcastically captured the significance of the Johnny-come-lately editorial:
God bless the Washington Post Editorial Board for taking such a bold stand and calling out the president. It’s a true testament to the stunning bravery of our media and isn’t at all a thoroughly lame attempt to pretend like this is a new development and like the MSM haven’t known this entire time that Joe Biden’s hiding from the press is a defining feature and not a bug of his presidency.