There may have been something of a shift in the mainstream media's willingness to show the more accurate side of President Joe Biden, which sure is ugly. It's even earned him the nickname of "Old Yeller." This is a Democrat we're talking about, though, and those who support the president are still given a platform, including but not limited to the media.
As Townhall has covered at length, an Axios report from Monday addressed how "Biden has such a quick-trigger temper that some aides try to avoid meeting alone with him," with examples of his outbursts including "God da**it, how the f**k don't you know this?!," "Don't f**king bulls**t me!" and "Get the f**k out of here!"
This looked to be something of a pattern from mainstream media outlets waking up to concerns about the president. As I pointed out in Monday's VIP piece, however, it's worth being skeptical, especially when it comes to what effect, if any, it will have when voters actually go to the polls:
Last November's disappointing midterm election results, though, could serve as a reminder that these concerns may not have enough of an effect. The New York Times has also published pieces raising concerns about Biden running again in 2024, including ahead of last year's midterms. Biden and his fellow Democrats certainly took notice of the party exceeding expectations. DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison mentioned such successes in his MSNBC interview with Jen Psaki.
Sure enough, Biden is still running again.
One can't be too cautious about elections where the Republicans ought to be favored to win, especially if any lessons are to be learned from last November's disappointing midterm election results.
As damning and illuminating as the Axios report was, it included the perspective of those who spoke to Biden's attitude being perceived as a sense of strength:
Ted Kaufman, Biden's longtime chief of staff when the future president represented Delaware in the Senate, told Axios that Biden's process is policy-driven, and has made him a strong executive.
- "If there is something that's not in the brief, he's going to find it," he said. "It's not to embarrass people, it's because he wants to get to the right decision. Most people who have worked for him like the fact that he challenges them and gets them to a better decision."
Some Biden aides argue that the president's rages reflect his high expectations for his staff.
- "Speaking Biden" is a particular skill, they said. It can take years to learn to navigate his moodiness, and anticipate what information he's going to ask for in a briefing.
- Some administration officials, many of whom went to elite schools, struggle with Biden's demand to ditch wonky, acronym-filled language and brief him as if they were talking to a close family member who isn't in the D.C. bubble.
- Biden's defenders acknowledge he can be tough. But they also say he can be more generous and compassionate than many powerful politicians and can make them feel like family. That's partly why so many aides have worked with Biden for decades, and go in and out of his orbit, they say.
Jim Geraghty highlighted this part of the report on Tuesday morning for National Review, in addition to concerns about dementia. He also mentioned how anger could be a sign of dementia. The Washington Free Beacon went with that same narrative as well, with the headline, "Brain Rage: Biden’s Violent Temper a Common Symptom of Dementia, Alzheimer’s."
The Independent responded to the Axios' report in an opinion piece from Noah Berlatsky, who based his piece on the reaction from Donald Trump Jr., who also referenced dementia.
That story was so obviously placed & written to make it sound like Biden isn’t suffering from late stage dementia. https://t.co/qVC3p2JJ64
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2023
Berlatsky sought to "fact-check Biden’s so-called mental decline" as he pointed to the 2022 midterm elections as evidence that Biden is actually doing okay after all, and that "Biden’s also managed a number of impressive policy successes in the teeth of Republican opposition."
His piece addressed this mental decline even more head-on, by citing another opinion piece, this time from Jacob Hess of Desert News. As Berlatsky went on to conclude his piece:
There’s virtually no evidence that Biden is in cognitive decline, and a lot of evidence — including the successful debt ceiling negotiations — that he remains fully able to do his job. It’s Trump who regularly babbles reality-detached and irresponsible nonsense, such as suggesting that people who suffer from Covid should inject bleach, or that Joe Biden is addicted to cocaine.
If the GOP really cared about fitness for office, it would have divested itself of Trump long ago. But it hasn’t because it isn’t. The question about Biden aren’t in good faith. Republicans are simply attempting to exploit prejudice against old people and against disabled people (Biden has a stutter) in order to gain electoral advantages.
But saying untrue things, and believing untrue things, can make it harder to craft effective political strategy and to win political victories. The GOP’s general disarray doesn’t assure Democratic victories on all things forever, obviously. They aren’t making things easier for themselves, though, by convincing themselves that Biden can’t win, even though he keeps doing just that.
The positive news coverage of the president continued. CBS News on Tuesday morning put out a particularly cringeworthy, tone deaf headline on how "Biden's 'grandfatherly appeal' may be asset overseas at NATO summit."
That quote comes from Liana Fix, a European fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "You really saw that Biden was putting his arm around Zelenskyy, encouraging him to continue to lead as if suggesting, 'I got your back,'" Fix said about the president and the Ukrainian president. "It's a grandfatherly appeal, and the warmth and wisdom from his age seems to transfer."
Other than Biden's mishaps at the NATO Summit in Lithuania, it's not the best choice of words to go with, considering the president and First Lady Jill Biden have refused to acknowledge their seventh grandchild, 4-year-old Navy Joan Roberts, who is the daughter of Hunter Biden.
Not only is there no mention of Hunter Biden and his daughter in the article, but CBS News seems to have ignored the story completely. It does not look like the outlet covered the Axios report, either.
The Hill, which did cover the Axios report, has since published opinion pieces praising the president. One from Brent Budowsky is especially noteworthy in how glowing it is, the headline reading, "A successful bipartisan President, Biden forges on." Go ahead and read it if you want a good laugh.
But the worst defense of Biden, not surprisingly, came from the ladies over on "The View," as Nicholas Fondacaro clipped at NewsBusters. The Tuesday edition of the show played a clip of Fox News' Kennedy joking that it "kind of turned me on" when she heard about the report.
On "The View," co-host Joy Behar spoke to how Kennedy's "turned on by Biden’s anger," adding, "I am too. I like it." She confirmed as much when asked by fellow co-host Sunny Hostin. Behar continued to sing the president's praises by pointing out, "I like that," claiming, "I mean, he's such a mild-mannered guy," before being cut off by co-host Whoopi Goldberg who reminded her "but you know he’s not. Listen, he has dropped more F-bombs than I have over the years."
Considering that he's so perfectly gone after Behar countless before, this sounds like something Fox News' Greg Gutfeld would have a heck of a time addressing.