My prediction that the press would circle the wagons around Joe Biden post-debate took a few days longer than expected to come to fruition, but that’s undeniably what’s happening now. Kelly O’Donnell, the NBC News reporter who heads up the White House Correspondents Association, left no doubt Thursday evening, turning into a spokesperson for the Biden administration.
Here’s what I wrote in early July.
SEE: The AP Releases an All-Timer on Biden’s Cognitive Abilities, Gets Burned to the Ground
The problem is that the media is filled with partisans who do not want Donald Trump to win. That’s left them with a conundrum. Do they go full-bore to try to push Biden aside for Kamala Harris, a risky strategy in its own right? Or do they fully circle the wagons and go back to being White House lap dogs? We are in a gray zone at this moment where they are still trying to figure out the answer to that.
Rest assured, though, they will arrive at whatever they think will help the Democratic Party. My past prediction still stands. We’ll be back to articles about “cheap fakes” by next week. They simply can’t abandon Biden because he’s not going to step aside.
I figured we’d be back on schedule by Monday or Tuesday, but Biden’s “big boy” press conference provided the excuse for the press to do their expected about-face. Sure, the president confused Kamala Harris for Donald Trump, among other rambling fumbles, but he didn’t become incapacitated behind the podium, and that was enough.
For the first time this year, our WH press corps was able to question the president in a solo news conference. Our colleagues asked a range of questions on the president’s candidacy, his party and opponent, his ability to lead for another term in a complex and dangerous world.…
— Kelly O’Donnell (@KellyO) July 12, 2024
I guess that’s one way to describe it, but the press conference I watched was heavily curated, with the president having a list of very friendly reporters to call on. That includes one from Poland who conveniently painted Trump as a pro-Russia tyrant, setting up Biden to rant for several minutes about how Europe will fall if he loses the election. Even the questions about the president’s health were carefully crafted to not push the issue. They were softballs, clearly designed to allow Biden to filibuster his way through the presser without providing any real answers about his mental and physical condition.
The other thing that caught my eye was O’Donnell’s proclamation at the end of her statement that Biden’s interactions with the press “serve the American people well with much at stake.” What exactly is “at stake” in this election? It sure sounds like the president of the WHCA is pushing the “threat to democracy” line without saying it directly.
That wasn’t the post that raised eyebrows, though. O’Donnell then quote-posted herself, chiding those who claimed any part of the press conference was scripted or staged. What set her off wasn’t immediately apparent, but one can assume she saw something in her replies.
To those who make the false charge, the WH press corps does not provide questions in advance. The president has a list of media who are credentialed in advance. His team knows who will be in the room and chose reporters from news wires, TV, print, and radio including a Polish… https://t.co/CwtRRNUKUX
— Kelly O’Donnell (@KellyO) July 12, 2024
Let’s put aside that O’Donnell is perfectly fine with the president being provided with a pre-selected list of friendly reporters in his only press conference of the entire year. She then goes on to assert that the White House press corps “does not provide questions in advance.” That’s when the ratio began.
“the WH press corps does not provide questions in advance”
Except they have, and you have never asked how or investigated how this happened. You just pretend this never happened while calling it a “false charge.” pic.twitter.com/YGScKyBxSb
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 12, 2024
As RedState reported at the time, Los Angeles Times reporter Courtney Subramanian was called on during a press conference in 2023, and she proceeded to ask a very nuanced question about semiconductors. An eagle-eyed photographer managed to take a picture of Biden’s “cheat sheet.” On it was Subramanian’s name (and how to pronounce it), her picture, and her entire question written out nearly verbatim. It was simply an impossibility that the White House had guessed what she was going to ask down to such detail and put it on the president’s card.
Did O’Donnell ever investigate that? Did she even comment on it? Of course, she didn’t. Instead, she and her colleagues pretended as if it never happened, with Subramanian claiming it was all one big coincidence. That was nonsense then, and it’s nonsense now. A WHCA reporter clearly provided her question to the White House comms team in advance. So O’Donnell is lying when she says that doesn’t happen, and to be frank, why should any of us believe that didn’t happen at this latest press conference “with much at stake?”
The press continues to be a joke. Whatever honesty they exuded over the last two weeks was always destined to be short-lived. It’s back to normal now, and that means serving as propaganda minister for the Biden administration. They will never stop lying to you.
