With the upcoming November midterms now less than six weeks away, the mainstream media appears to be working overtime in their attempts to protect President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party as a whole. Early on Thursday morning, Alex Gangitano and Tobias Burns wrote about how "Republicans pounce on ailing markets to criticize Biden."
As the article begins:
President Biden’s economic woes have largely been tied to inflation, with his lowest approval ratings coinciding with surging gas prices over the summer.
While Biden has so far been able to dodge blame for the recent stock market declines in the wake of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, Republicans are increasingly tying the faltering markets to the White House, warning Americans not to vote for Democrats in November’s midterm election if they value their portfolios.
The Republicans in question doing the "pounc[ing]" include Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), as well as the RNC. Such a report didn't exactly capture the mood of what the RNC has been addressing, though.
BIDEN in January: The stock market has hit “record after record on my watch!”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 30, 2022
NOW: The stock market has lost trillions in value since Biden took office. pic.twitter.com/a9LeRZrE9y
In January, Joe Biden: “the stock market…has hit record after record after record on my watch."
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 27, 2022
Today: Stocks have lost $7.6 trillion in value since Biden took office. pic.twitter.com/a9LeRZrE9y
Further, these Republicans aren't the only ones. Everyday Twitter users have also been lamenting the situation.
Joe Biden has crashed the stock market, bottomed out 401k's, brought record inflation, sold us out to China, wrecked the middle class, called Americans who disagree with him "domestic terrorists" and brought us to the brink of WWIII.
— Breck Worsham (@Breck_Worsham) September 30, 2022
What EXACTLY are you libs so proud of?
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At this rate the stock market is going to go as low as Joe Biden's IQ.
— Rising serpent ???? (@rising_serpent) September 29, 2022
If Trump were still President, CNN and MSNBC would have red alert frames on their channels and a constant dire headline about how the stock market is completely crashing... pic.twitter.com/YMXhpcuPnD
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) September 29, 2022
Who could have guessed that the stock market crashing and Biden hosting a party at the White House for rich, wealthy elites on the same day wouldn’t play well? Unforeseeable.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) September 28, 2022
Other headlines from other outlets in recent days are less about partisan politics. On Tuesday, Robert Frank wrote for CNBC how "Stock market losses wipe out $9 trillion from Americans’ wealth." On Thursday, after Gangitano and Burns' piece went up, CBS News published their report that the Associated Press had contributed to, "U.S. stocks return to red as markets deal with aggressive rate hikes."
Gangitano and Burns do mention some facts. "Major stock indices entered a bear market this week, marking a 20-percent decline off highs earlier this year before rallying on Wednesday," they wrote at one point. "The S&P 500 index has fallen more than 22 percent since January, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite is down about 30 percent on the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 29,683 on Wednesday, down 19.3 percent from 36,800 in January," they wrote farther down.
What's not mentioned, though, are some pretty key details. Last Friday, Katie addressed how "The Stock Market Is Now Worse Off Than When Biden Took Office." On September 13, Spencer also wrote "Stock Market Crash: Worst Day in Over Two Years."
The Hill did address those issues in previous articles from earlier this month, but not in the "Republicans pounce" one. Those facts aren't hard to acknowledge here as well, unless one is looking to protect the president.
Gangitano and Burns also couldn't help themselves when it comes to mentioning former President Donald Trump and how in November 2020 he "made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room to celebrate the high and attempt to take ownership of it."
As a Twitter user known as Razor pointed out, though, The Hill has had no problem tying the markets to Trump before.
The Hill Pounces to Tie Market Losses to Republican pic.twitter.com/w1tSICrAEJ
— Razor (@hale_razor) September 29, 2022
The Twitter account for The Hill shared the article no less than three times, with each tweet getting far more attention than other tweeted out articles have gotten.
I assume you know the Nasdaq is down over 30% YTD? How does one point that out without "pouncing"?
— Number 6 (@KitDarkfeather) September 29, 2022
Someone has to “pounce”, or “seize”. Because, y’all are spending all of your time kissing his backside, trying to get everyone to believe that he doesn’t have us hurtling to rock bottom
— margarito vasquez (@srforms) September 29, 2022
The obligatory phrase that pays!
— KC Frew (@KnoxvilleKC) September 29, 2022
The Hill's interns drunk tweeting again.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) September 29, 2022
Next time you see a poll about how little trust Americans have in the press, please know that it is because of you.
— doctor moron (@MoronDoctor_) September 29, 2022
Maybe we’re all over it because journalists aren’t. Maybe we’re doing your job for you.
— Smug Potato (@PotatoSmug) September 29, 2022
The one that gained the most attention, though, was shared early Thursday morning. It so far has over 850 replies, an of the 243 retweets, 185 are quoted retweets, most of them taking issue with the language used.
NEW: Republicans pounce on ailing markets to criticize Biden https://t.co/WlmzqH06Xu pic.twitter.com/FSRcUWSss0
— The Hill (@thehill) September 29, 2022
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