National Public Radio is a sandbox for the Left. The "news" there is manufactured by leftists, for leftists. You can find it easily in the latest interviews about the Biden reelection campaign. The interviewers are clearly nervous that President Joe Biden's messaging isn't working. It's not that Biden's incompetent; it's that voters are ignorant.
On the Jan. 9 "Morning Edition," NPR host Michel Martin interviewed Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison. He worried that Biden's focus on "saving democracy" from the "far right" threat of Trump wasn't working.
In asking Harrison about Biden's campaign speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, she cited black talk show host Charlamagne tha God, who insisted this campaign will be a "race between the cowards, the crooks and the couch." She summarized, "The couch is a viable opportunity for people who don't think that either candidate really speaks to their concerns, meaning that people can just stay home." All the Democrats are terrified of low turnout among young people and minorities.
Martin asked if Biden's Charleston speech aiming to stir up black voters about the "poison" of white supremacy still engulfing America would work: "Do you think that this is a message which resonates, kind of across different groups who perhaps don't share the president's life experiences or the experiences of a lot of the people who go to that church?"
Was Martin implying Biden sounds too white and clueless? The DNC chair gave the typical campaign surrogate answer that the threat of white supremacy reaches all ages: "The racial animosity, racial hatred, the impact that racism still has -- knows no age, knows no bounds. I think that resonates with everybody."
Then Martin mentioned that Biden's speech was interrupted by pro-Hamas protesters (she only said "protesters") demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Biden tried to tell them he was quietly nudging the Israelis to pull out. Martin worried out loud from the left: "Mr. Chairman, are you at all concerned that this anger about this quiet approach puts his reelection at risk?" Harrison oozed Biden's answer and displayed his typical "grace" and "empathy."
On that evening's "All Things Considered," anchor Scott Detrow spoke to another Biden surrogate, his infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu. Despite all the messaging about Biden's "achievements" of roads and bridges, Detrow said it hasn't "sunk in," as "you see poll after poll. People feel like the president isn't helping them economically. The president isn't doing stuff that I value. I mean, that disconnect has been hard to figure out all along. How do you make sense of it?"
Landrieu argued that when he was mayor of New Orleans, voters often didn't think he'd achieved things, and "it took a while for their feelings to line up with the reality." He said Biden's not a bad president, but people just haven't caught up. Landrieu claimed once voters realize Biden brought 40,000 infrastructure products, they'll choose Biden over Trump, and know the difference "between chaos and actually getting stuff done."
Detrow pushed back that despite "tons of press" on infrastructure, "It hasn't seemed to move the needle in a big-picture way. Is it just being eaten up by everything else, or are we thinking about it wrong?" Landrieu argued that Gov. Andy Beshear was just reelected in Kentucky after citing the infrastructure spending.
These people pretend the economy can't be seen as better under Trump, before the COVID lockdowns, that rampant inflation and sky-high mortgage rates can be minimized by, "Hey, there's a new bridge." They should be worried.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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