While it hasn’t received much press lately, one of the most important stories in the country remains the looming possibility of a railroad strike. It goes without saying that a shutdown of most of the nation’s ability to transport fuel and consumer goods would be a disaster for the American public.
Prior to the 2022 election, a tentative deal was reached that froze things in place. What a coincidence, right? Who could have guessed that Democrat-backed unions would take one for the team to ensure that the nation didn’t meltdown before voters went to the polls? Yet, heading into the Christmas season, things remain on a knife’s edge.
That’s left the White House scrambling, and it also happens to be the setup for one of the most blatant lies told by the Biden administration. When pressed on whether President Joe Biden was “directly” involved in negotiations between the unions and the rail companies, his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, insisted over and over that he was.
But as a new video put together by the RNC shows, that’s simply untrue. How do we know? Because Biden himself told us.
It’s actually disturbing to watch Jean-Pierre tell the same lie no less than eight times, only to have Biden let the truth slip out just two days later. Over and over, the press secretary asserted that Biden was “directly involved” in the negotiations. On Thanksgiving, though, he stated that he has not “directly engaged” and that his team is handling things.
Was this a lack of coordination? I suspect not. Rather, it seems more likely that Biden’s senility struck again, leaving him unable to remember his talking points.
Here’s my big question, though. Why lie about this in the first place? Would anyone have even cared that Biden wasn’t actually directly involved? Would you have cared? I wouldn’t have. Heck, most Americans would probably prefer he not be directly involved, given the president’s long record of failure.
So, what’s the motivation to lie? I think it’s a product of deep-seated insecurity within the administration. In short, because Biden is so clearly out of it and not in charge, his handlers tend to overcorrect, pretending that he’s intimately involved in every important decision. Obviously, he’s not, and the attempt to make it seem that way leads to awkward situations like this where the president is directly contradicting his press secretary. I’ve lost count of how many times that’s happened over the last nearly two years.
What’s Jean-Pierre supposed to do, though? As bad as she is at her job, she can only work with what she’s got, and what she has is a man who can’t be counted on to keep the administration’s lies straight. Given that, maybe not lying so much would be prudent. Just a suggestion.