BY SCOTT JOHNSON | POWERLINE
There was a whole lotta lyin’ (and cheatin’)
goin’ on at the lectern when President Biden turned up for his first press
conference yesterday. Michael Goodwin takes up the lyin’ in his New York Post
column. His friends among the media made sure that they kept the degree of
difficulty low. Biden was among friends. Michael Goodwin takes up these leading
features of Biden’s performance in his New
York Post column this morning. Goodwin bluntly calls it “a sickening
spectacle.”
The historian and journalist Dominic Green
concisely captured this aspect of the spectacle in Spectator column — whole
thing here —
at 4:06 p.m. (Eastern) yesterday afternoon: “The White House is no longer the
home of democracy. It’s a reality TV series in a care home.”
And yet the infirm gentleman at the lectern
required special assistance. The assistance came in the form of handy cheat
sheets published in 14-point type labeled The President, just in case he
forgot who he is or failed to summon his talking points from the vastly deep on
his own power.
You can see the cheat sheets in the Daily
Mail and in the New
York Post.
U.S. President Joe Biden holds notes on infrastructure
while speaking during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in
Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, March 25, 2021. (Photo by Oliver Contreras/Sipa USA/Reuters)
US
President Joe Biden talks to reporters on March 25, 2021. (Getty Images)
RedState’s Nick Arama offers more
of both the cheat sheets and the headshots via Twitter.
US President Joe Biden talks to reporters during the first
news conference on March 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
The substance of Biden’s remarks was, if anything, worse than his apparent infirmity. Goodwin takes up this point as well. “A sickening spectacle” concisely captures it.
UPDATE: In his daily Examiner column, Byron
York calls it “An
embarrassing day for the White House press corps.” It was certainly
that and more.
_____
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/03/a-sickening-spectacle.php
______________
Related article
Biden lies, and the media doesn’t question
it: Goodwin
By Michael Goodwin | NY Post
Evan Vucci/AP
Three big things stood out in President Biden’s
first press conference.
1. The leader of the free world is often
lost at sea and says many things that are blatantly false.
2. The media is in the tank and cannot
be trusted to hold him accountable.
3. Because of Nos. 1 and 2, America is
headed for serious trouble.
For this sickening spectacle we had to wait
64 days?
Still, the event was meaningful in one
distressing way. Now we know beyond all doubt there is no way to deny the
terrifying truth.
This was Biden’s
coming out party, and the nation faces a mess that will only grow worse
with time. The man who campaigned on unity is hell-bent on permanent
polarization, meaning cancel culture and the supercharged racial climate are
here to stay.
Biden gave license to the worst instincts on
the left with his repeated sneering references to all Republicans and
especially Donald Trump. At one point, he actually accused Trump of letting
immigrant children “starve to death on the other side” of the Mexican border.
He said it in a room full of 30 supposed
journalists and not a single one challenged him or even asked whether he meant
it literally. In fact, not a
single one challenged him on any of his falsehoods.
Nor did anyone ask him why he read from
prepared talking points during answers to three questions on foreign policy. No
recent president has felt the need to do that.
There also were moments when he talked
himself into dead ends, yet there were no questions about when he would release
the health reports he’s been hiding.
Regarding his agenda, a report that Biden
sees himself
as the new FDR gives credence to the idea that he’s all in for every
big, crazy idea left-wing Dems can cook up.
The Green New Deal, open
borders, removing
voting safeguards, endless tax hikes, statehood for DC — they’re all on
track and bound for glory. The only obstacle is the Senate filibuster, which
requires 60 votes to pass legislation, but Biden left no doubt he would be
willing to do away with it.
“I want to get things done,” he said.
Each piece of his party’s planned utopia is
unprecedentedly radical in its own way, but not nearly radical enough for the
media. Their performance was pathetic not just in what questions they asked and
didn’t ask, but how they asked them. The dominant theme was that Biden and his
team are not moving fast enough to turn America upside down and inside out.
Why don’t you, when will you, why haven’t
you? Over and over, the aim was not to ask a question but to speed up an
agenda.
Naturally, this was the complete opposite of
the way some of the same people behaved during the Trump presidency. Then the
questions were outraged expressions that aimed at stopping the administration.
Now they are pleas aimed at pushing this one forward faster.
As such, the 10 people Biden called on
generally followed the script laid out in the Washington Post and elsewhere.
Columnist Margaret Sullivan had warned reporters not to try to
“show how tough” they were being on Biden to please “Trump allies.” She even
downplayed the border crisis, suggesting it was getting too much attention.
It got the most attention Thursday, but only
in ways that reinforced the idea that it is the milk of human compassion to
invite Central
Americans to make the long trek north. Violence is rampant and coyotes,
human traffickers and the cartels are making a mint, but not a peep about that
from the president or his media helpers.
Nor was there any hint that perhaps stricter
enforcement was compassionate to Americans in border towns and taxpayers
everywhere. Instead, the underlying assumption seemed to be that any suffering
experienced by migrants once they got to the border was proof of heartlessness
and had to be remedied as quickly as possible.
As for the pandemic, apparently it’s no longer a problem. Pictures showing migrants crowded together in cages and reports that many are released despite testing positive for COVID never came up. No sense spoiling the good vibes.
The facts of illegal immigration are fairly
simple. Trump campaigned on the issue and after false starts and despite
unified Democratic opposition, eventually stitched together a series of
policies and actions that stemmed the tide. He built large sections of wall,
deported criminal aliens and struck an agreement with Mexico that those making
asylum claims would have to wait in Mexico.
It is also a fact that Biden blew up each of
those pillars, yet now claims he inherited a mess. Strangely, he also insisted
that the numbers surging now “happens every single, solitary year. Nothing has
changed.”
He’s either misinformed or lying. Record
numbers of arrivals are being reported daily, and NBC recently called the
crossings the highest in 20 years.
Again, Biden was not challenged.
The final proof that the press has abdicated its
role was clinched when the president refused to say when he would allow more
media access to the border detention facilities. He said it would have to wait
until his team got its new programs working.
If Trump had said that, the sky would have
fallen and democracy would be declared dead. But when Biden says it, the media
rolls over.
So add transparency to the list of things
that don’t matter anymore.
https://nypost.com/2021/03/25/biden-lies-and-the-media-doesnt-question-it-goodwin/
