President Joe Biden had another special kind of moment with reporters on Saturday as he was doing a victory lap when it comes to the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package passing. In addition to snapping at a reporter and creating even greater confusion over whether or not illegal immigrants will be awarded $450,000, as Landon reported, the president managed to mock not only reporters but the American people as a whole when it comes to the supply chain crisis issues.
Would've been a perfect opportunity for him to explain it. He didn't. He just criticizes voters for not being smart enough to understand it either.
— Larry O'Connor (@LarryOConnor) November 6, 2021
Experts like Mayor Pete are on top of the problem though. https://t.co/nSbP06hyop
A reporter pointed out that "Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger said of your presidency this week: 'Nobody elected him to be FDR. They elected him to be normal and stop the chaos'" and then when on to ask "How do you view your mandate after Tuesday’s election losses for Democrats? And is she wrong?"
Biden gave a long and rambling answer. And for someone who accuses the American people of being confused, his answer wasn't always easy to follow.
Biden mocks Americans’ intelligence: “If we were all going out & having lunch together & I said let’s ask whoever's in the next table, no matter what restaurant we’re in, have them explain the supply chain to us. Do you think they’d understand what we’re talking about?" pic.twitter.com/lHAwLJZBfy
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 6, 2021
Insulting for Biden to keep talking about how Americans are “confused” or don’t understand the supply issue.
— Abigail Marone ???? (@abigailmarone) November 6, 2021
They know their cost of living is going up. They know their grocery store shelves are empty. They know the country is going in the wrong direction. There’s no confusion.
Hey look, @JoeBiden... A journalist explained the supply chain problems!!!
— Larry O'Connor (@LarryOConnor) November 6, 2021
Maybe stop reading WaPo https://t.co/l90IvCV1Gh
"I don’t intend to anybody but Joe Biden. That’s who I am. And what I’m trying to do is do the things that I ran on to do. And, look, people out there are — ordinary, hardworking Americans are really, really — been put through the wringer the last couple years, starting with COVID," Biden claimed at one point of his answer.
As his lengthy, rambling answer continued on in part:
What — like, for example, if I had — if we were all going out and having lunch together and I said, “Let’s ask whoever the — whoever is at the next table, no matter how — what restaurant we’re in — have them explain the supply chain to us.” You think they’d understand what we’re talking about?
They’re smart people. But supply chain — “Well, why is everything backed up?” Well, it’s backed up because the people who supply the materials that end up being on our kitchen table or in our — in our fam- — our life — guess what? They’re closing those plants because they have COVID. They’re not —
And so, it’s a complicated world that people are facing. We’ve never faced anything like this before. I mean, I’m not saying it’s the worst of every time in American history, but we never faced anything this — this, sort of, defiant of understanding of what’s going on.
And you can understand why people are upset. And I — whether you have a PhD or you’re — or you’re working, you know, in a restaurant, it’s confusing. And so, people are understandably worried. They’re worried.
And so, all I can say is: What I’m going to try to do is explain to the American people, as best I can —
And, by the way, you all write for a living. I haven’t seen any one of you explain the supply chain very well. No, no, I’m not being critical. I’m being deadly earnest. When your editor says, “Explain the supply chain.” Okay? “Lots of luck in your senior year,” as my coach used to say.
Regardless as to if Biden thinks the American people understand the supply chain crisis, or how he claims "I haven’t seen any one of you explain the supply chain very well," the American people understand enough to know the president is to blame. They've rated him poorly for months in the polls and his approval ratings continue to get worse.
A Trafalgar poll from last month found that a majority of likely voters, 53.7 percent of them, have been "personally encountering delays or shortages when attempting to purchase common consumer products."
One way of explaining it is that the American people are hurting because President Biden and his administration have messed up.
Biden also went on to sell the reconciliation bill, also known as his Build Back Better agenda:
The world has never been here before. That sounds like hyperbole, but think about it. Think about it. This truly is one of those inflection points in history. All the pieces on the board are moving, both in terms of the — the relationships among and between nations, as well as the pieces about what employment future people have. How do we do this?
And so, this is a confusing time. But I promise — I promise the American people: I have one focus, “How do we give you some breathing room? How do we get you to the point where we take pressure off you so you can begin to get back to a degree of normality and we move to a different place?”
And this time when we move — and, by the way, everybody internationally uses “Build Back Better” now. When I used the phrase initially, people looked at me like, “Build Back Better?”
Well, what it means — we’re the only country in the world, gone through a crisis, to go through a crisis, and come out better than we were be- — before the crisis occurred. That’s building back better than it was before.
And so, this is a process. And I just — you know, we’re going to see. Take it every day, every moment at a — you know, one moment at a time.
Yet as I highlighted in multiple articles now, pointing to a series of polls from ABC News/Ipsos and Emerson College polling, the American people aren't that convinced Build Back Better will help them. Even a significant amount of Democrats have concerns.
The president then finished up by saying "I’m going to get in real trouble. This is the last question I’m taking." He went on to close his eyes, point towards the press and say "you can decide who I’m pointing to."
It's also worth examining the crux of the reporter's question, and of the congresswoman's remarks.
Rep. Spanberger, who represents Virginia's 7th district, is considered a vulnerable candidate, with many Republicans candidates eager to challenge her come next year's midterm elections.
CNN's Chris Cillizza offered a telling analysis on what the congresswoman meant, which the president seemed to miss completely.
"There's absolutely no question that since coming into office, Biden has pursued a radical agenda -- in the sense that his proposed spending would represent a major reentry of the federal government into the lives of the average American," he wrote.
He went on to analyze her point further:
What Spanberger is suggesting is that Biden tried to govern like FDR -- massive government spending on huge social programs -- without FDR majorities or an FDR mandate from the public.
Her belief is that Biden was NOT, in fact, elected to fundamentally reshape the country and the relationship its average citizen has (or wants) with the government. That he was actually elected to be a steady hand on the tiller -- in the wake of the Trump chaos -- and to steer the country, from a public health and economic perspective, back to some semblance of normal.
That is a far more narrow read on Biden's mandate than the President and his White House have concluded from the 2020 election.
But, judging from the disastrous results at the ballot box on Tuesday, Biden might do better to go smaller rather than bigger on his proposals over the next year.
Biden ran as a moderate. He's also still claiming that he ran to unify the country, which is puzzling considering how a Pew Research Center poll from September found that 66 percent are not confident he can "bring the country closer together."
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