Byron York's Daily Memo: Joe Biden meets the press
By: ByronYork (Washington Examiner)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
JOE BIDEN MEETS THE PRESS. In recent days there have been a number of comments noting that the Democratic presidential candidate hasn't answered media questions in a long time -- 89 days, to be exact. So on Tuesday, Biden met the press in a gymnasium in Wilmington, Delaware.
Some observers saw a marked contrast between the treatment given Biden and that given President Trump. "The difference between the tenor of the questions to Biden compared to the questions asked of Trump is striking," tweeted former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer, who has taken a few questions in his time. "After 8 years of going easy on Obama, almost 4 years of being brutal to Trump, the MSM seems happy to go easy again."
Indeed, the first question was the softest softball Biden's comms team could ever have imagined. It was about reports that Trump was told about intelligence showing Russia was paying bounties for the murders of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. "You called his inaction on this issue a 'betrayal,'" a reporter noted to Biden. "So broadly, what consequences do you think the president should face for that betrayal?"
Any politician has to be happy with a question that can be boiled down to: Please tell us how bad your opponent really is.
There were other softballs, as well. Another reporter asked whether Trump is "guilty of violating his oath of office" in the Russia matter. Another asked where Biden sees the presidential race standing now, and if he believes he can he keep his advantage without traditional campaigning. Yet another asked Biden how he would bring the country together.
A few questions were interesting. One reporter asked about the destruction of monuments. (Biden said he monuments should be removed by a legal process, but he understood the anger of mobs who were tearing down statues.) Another asked whether Biden had been tested for coronavirus. (No.) The final question, as Biden was heading toward the door, was whether Biden had been tested for cognitive decline. (Again, no.)
Some would have liked a question or two about the events of January 2017, when Biden was part of the Obama White House discussion of surveillance on the Trump transition. Some would have liked to focus on Biden's views on Black Lives Matter and the violence that has struck cities across the country. And perhaps some journalist could dig down into Biden's views on defunding the police?
Of course there will be more chances to question Biden in the future. But so far, it's true -- he has gotten pretty easy treatment from a press that at the same time exhibits a "near-uniform determination not to let [Trump] have a single good news day," in the words of Mickey Kaus. Added Fleischer: "It's so much easier being a Democrat than a Republican."
Who is online
70 visitors