Joe Biden gave a long press conference yesterday which was supposed to remove doubt about his competence.
It did not succeed.
He kept saying to the reporters he would go as long as they wanted to ask him questions — a PR move that someone must have told him would make him look more capable. The problem with it was that as long as he was there and still talking, it wasn’t good for him.
Virtually every statement was full of issues like this one, where he seemed to have difficulty coming to a coherent thought.
He also went off on RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann, shouting at him and saying that he, Biden, hadn’t compared Republicans/people objecting to his ‘voting rights’ push to Bull Connor and George Wallace when he did. Although, it should be noted that Philip Wegmann did not go quietly into the night after Biden yelled at him
But perhaps the most troubling comment of the press conference was one that set Ukrainian officials on edge. Biden seemed to give a green light to Russia for a “minor incursion” into Ukraine, suggesting that it wouldn’t merit a big response. What a horrible comment. Someone with no political experience would know that would be a stupid thing to say, yet here’s this guy who spent his whole life in the Senate not getting that. His effort to clarify it later in the press conference made it worse. The White House tried to clean it up after the press conference, but they didn’t help.
So today, the last thing the White House or Biden wanted to do was answer questions about Ukraine.
Biden got in a lie about his close relationship with Chinese President Xi and traveling 17,000 miles with him.
This has even been debunked by the Washington Post; Biden was given three Pinocchios for the lie. But he keeps saying it anyway. I’m not sure it’s something he should brag about, especially when there are questions that the Biden family may be improperly close to China.
But then the press started to ask about Russia and Ukraine. One reporter asked about the Ukrainian president rebuking Biden directly, saying that there are no “minor incursions.”
The White House wasn’t going to have any of that. They started screaming for all the reporters to get out.
Nice transparency there.
But Biden then did something to make it worse, saying something that was incredibly obnoxious – even for him – as the reporters were being ushered out. When a reporter asked if he was waiting on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to make the first move, the hot mic caught what he said under his breath.
“What a stupid question,” Biden said, mocking the Fox reporter, Jacqui Heinrich. This is the real Biden — not the character they wanted to sell us as the nice, congenial Uncle Joe. He’s a nasty, old man who doesn’t like to be challenged in any way.
So, will the White House Correspondents’ Association chastise him for the lack of transparency or the way he treats reporters? Don’t bet on it.