Do we even need to ask what would have happened to Donald Trump if he pulled what the Biden team is trying to do with the media? To quote the former president, it would have been the "electric chair." It would have provided another basis for Democrats to launch an impeachment stunt, along with endless stories about how Trump is a fascist trying to muzzle the press. Yet, that's what Biden's team is trying to do for the 2024 race.
The most transparent administration ever sworn into power can’t handle reporters writing stories about their ugly shortfalls. The Biden administration’s frustration with not being properly credited with what they see as an economic renaissance in the media is handled with this creepy and authoritarian invite to the nation’s top reporters. They get access to this 2024 operation, but the price is a lecture from Biden campaign officials on what they’re getting wrong in their coverage. I’m not kidding (via Semafor):
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has begun organizing a series of off-the-record trips for top political reporters and editors to the team’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware and meet top officials, including the campaign manager, deputies, and other senior advisors for background briefings on campaign strategy.
They’re also using it as an opportunity to tell them what they’re getting wrong. Two people with knowledge of the situation told Semafor that during meetings with reporters from outlets like The New York Times, the Washington Post, and others, campaign officials have invoked a coverage spreadsheet laying out areas where the team believes their reporting has fallen short.
In particular, campaign officials have chafed at some of the coverage of former President Donald Trump, feeling that outlets are too focused on his legal troubles and haven’t paid enough attention to some of his incendiary recent statements on the campaign trail. A source familiar told Semafor that with the exception of its recent meeting with the Times, the campaign meetings had been “substantive” and “productive,” and that Biden staffers were scheduled to meet in the coming days with political reporting teams from ABC, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox, NPR, Reuters, Bloomberg, and others in Wilmington.
“Fallen short,” meaning press coverage that doesn’t involve writing glowing exposés about this dementia-ridden administration that can’t even do the simple things correctly—like telling us Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in the ICU for days last week after suffering complications from an “elective medical procedure.”
This team knows that every aspect of the narrative must be controlled for them to have a shot at re-election. It’s creepy and un-American. If they’re this worried about bad press concerning Joe Biden, maybe Democrats shouldn’t have doubled down on this bad bet. The man is being led off by his wife at events, unable to comprehend his surroundings. If he can’t handle two events in one day without falling, bumbling, drooling, or looking lost, this endeavor isn’t worth entertaining. I don’t see Biden surviving a campaign season that isn’t handicapped by COVID procedures. Those are long over, and voters expect the president to have the stamina to do multiple events in various states for days on end until we all vote in November.
On that issue, no meeting could smooth over Biden falling or suffering a blown mental fuse a la Mitch McConnell on the stump.
Same energy https://t.co/QLlDO2EX7S pic.twitter.com/SVtFluReJg
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) January 8, 2024