I've started to make this point on radio and television, so I figured I'd flesh it out here a bit, too. The Biden administration has been battered by a series of crises and missteps, nearly all of which they've created or exacerbated with their policies. Over and over again, their response has been to play ridiculous rhetorical games. They insist the border crisis is not a crisis at all, but rather a "challenge," in which the border is "closed" and "secure." It's nonsense. Neither of those descriptors is accurate, and if you can't call a lengthy string of record-shattering months on border encounters a 'crisis,' that term has no meaning. Biden himself even asserted last year that his team had gotten the issue under 'control,' only to watch the numbers spiral even further. They call this a 'closed'-border 'challenge:'
NEW: Per DHS sources, there have been over 500,000 known gotaways at the border since FY’22 began on 10/1, far eclipsing the 389,155 gotaways Secretary Mayorkas reported in all of FY’21.
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) July 25, 2022
Approx 900,000 gotaways since FY’21 began, bigger than population of San Francisco. @FoxNews
On inflation, it was "transitory." It was "temporary." And then when it wasn't, it was other people's fault. On spiked gas prices, it was all beyond their control, and the doing of Vladimir Putin and greedy oil companies. Until, of course, the dizzying prices came down modestly (remaining extremely high), for which they're trying to take credit -- putting out embarrassing graphics like this:
‘TELLS YOU A LOT’: While the White House celebrates, average gas prices today are almost double what they were when Biden took office, and the average cost was $2.39 a gallon. https://t.co/4LR3hqikcx pic.twitter.com/INxIQ5gezJ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 25, 2022
Putin's price hike, Biden's price drop. You're welcome, America, and enjoy your per-'peson' (relative) "savings" versus peak prices (which may return). On recession, the spin machine is in preemptive hyper-drive, desperately redefining a basic economic rule-of-thumb term that's been used across the spectrum for decades. The media is getting in on the fun, from the predictable partisan hacks to the 'down-the-middle' journos. It's suddenly all very technical, you see. The White House handed down the official talking points, and the media is scrambling to adjust to their tribe's latest messaging. It's predictably demeaning:
Recommended
— Damin Toell (@damintoell) July 26, 2022
Click on those screen grabs to see the AP repeatedly using the common definition of recession, which they've abruptly decided isn't the one that "counts." Because that's what the White House is saying. Due to an economic statistic that might be announced tomorrow. Subtle. And on crime, Attorney General Garland rejected the 'crisis' moniker, calling rising crime rates a 'matter of concern.' As I've been saying, the Democrats can tinker, parse, and employ whatever rhetorical sleight of hand all they want. If their words don't reflect what Americans are actually experiencing, their deflections won't work. Worse, at some point, they'll start to actively piss people off. Voters don't enjoy having their collective intelligence consistently insulted -- and piling condescending, out-of-touch dishonesty on top of poor performance seems like a recipe for resentful backlash:
"Do you start to actually actively piss people off by insulting their intelligence rather than just being a little bit more straightforward?" @guypbenson discusses the Biden Administration's strategy of spinning the crises it is facing @BillHemmer @DanaPerino pic.twitter.com/nzTLiYfSr7
— America's Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) July 27, 2022
I'll leave you with this, since they're evidently scraping the bottom of the barrel by resurrecting this facially ludicrous, totally unpersuasive claim:
lol good luck with this
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 27, 2022
the “rescue” plan has been called one of the worst inflationary policy mistakes in recent memory by multiple Democratic economists & the WH wants people to believe Republicans rightly opposes it because…they’re anti-police, or something https://t.co/A6XSbzlcBC
Receipts here.
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