As we reported yesterday, Joe Biden is being accused of being the “hider-in-chief” and “least accessible” occupant in the White House to the press in recent history.
Among the problems? Biden is reluctant to do interviews. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki indicated three weeks ago that he would be involved in doing interviews to push his agenda. But he hasn’t been. And as we noted, one of the reasons why is that because when he does do an interview, even a limited one like he did in November with a local station, he still manages to make problematic comments. In that local interview, Biden managed to insult Americans by claiming that one of the reasons his poll numbers were low — that Americans weren’t thinking highly of him — was that Americans had “psychological scars” from the pandemic. The problems aren’t his, you’re just confused if you think so.
So how do they address the problem that even the media is noticing and commenting on how inaccessible Biden has been?
Biden did an interview with Jimmy Fallon last night on the “Tonight Show.” Let’s face it — no one is going to think that’s anything but a friendly cushy interview, and it was exactly that. It’s not designed to be a tough interview, and it wasn’t.
Fallon did talk about Biden’s approval numbers, but Biden made a joke about it. Pro-tip to Joe? Joking about Americans suffering is not particularly funny.
Biden claimed that he no longer looked at the polls “anymore.”
Biden claimed that he was paying attention “when they were in the mid-60s, but now that they’re in the 40s, I don’t pay attention.”
That’s a lie on both ends of it. His ratings at the start, for example with FiveThirtyEight and Gallup, were in the 50s, not the “mid-60s” and now they’ve dipped into the 30s, with the lowest being the Quinnipiac poll at 36 percent approval. Part of the problem is exactly what Biden said — he’s ignoring/not paying attention to what Americans are voicing their concerns about, so he’s not changing his policies.
Fallon didn’t question Biden on what he said, he just said he “appreciated his honesty.” “You came in hot and then you got to medium and now you’re at a low,” Fallon exclaimed, saying Biden just had to “keep his head down and keep doing the right thing.” When is Biden going to start doing the “right thing”?
Biden then downplayed the concerns of Americans once again, suggesting that their opinions were informed by “inaccurate information.” It’s our fault that we don’t understand how perfect he is. It’s insulting that he keeps saying things like this.
“They’re being told that Armageddon’s on the way,” Biden said. “The truth is the economy’s grown more than it has any time in close to 60 years, the unemployment rate is down to 4.2 percent — it’s going to go lower, in my view.”
Translation? People are returning to work after the pandemic closures. Trump had unemployment down to 3.5 percent before the pandemic. He presents no evidence to suggest that inflation is going to come down anytime soon and in fact if he managed to pass his Build Back Better bill, that could only make things worse. It’s already at historic levels — it surged 6.8 percent, even more than expected, in November to the fastest rate in 39 years.
Fallon praised Biden for bringing “class” back to the office for eulogizing former Sen. Bob Dole. But he ignored Biden attacking Republicans on his show. This promotion from Fallon should be considered a donation in kind to the Democratic Party.
Biden decried the lack of civility in politics, but claimed there was still a lot of bipartisanship, “except for the Q-Anon and the extreme elements of the Republican party … it makes it awful hard.” He then claimed President Donald Trump was “feeding” into partisanship. So he attacks Republicans as “extreme,” but he’s the one working for bipartisanship? Does he even listen to himself as he attacks Trump at every opportunity over the past two years? And has he looked at his own extreme party lately? Or does he just do what the extremists say without question?
Biden also claimed — falsely — that people (obviously those evil Republicans) were trying to prevent Americans from voting in 30 “cities” (I think he meant states). Talk about pitching division and not being honest.
At no point did Fallon push back with facts on anything Biden said. He delivered the fluffy, softball interview Biden wanted. But even for that softball interview with his highly questionable answers, Biden had to have notecards.