My latest at PJ Media:
Old Joe Biden has been pretending to be president of the United States for almost a year now, and he has pretty much mastered, with some difficulty, walking up the steps of Air Force One. However, one aspect of his presidential act could still use some work: in his first year, he has held fewer press conferences and interviews than Trump, Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton, and George H.W. Bush. Biden’s handlers clearly don’t want him out there in front of the cameras talking, and it’s easy to see why.
Biden’s handlers have clearly taken Obama’s dictum seriously: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f*** things up.” They’re clearly determined to give him as few opportunities to do so as possible. Even at the press conferences he has held, Biden has on several occasions made it clear that the people who are really in charge were keeping him on a short leash. Last June at the G7 Summit, Biden said: “I’m sorry, I’m going to get in trouble with staff if I don’t do this the right way.” At a press conference in November, the obliging presidential puppet gave the impression that he was not supposed to take too many questions: “I can take…I’m going to get in real trouble…this is the last question I’m taking.”
Biden’s handlers have limited his press conference access severely. He has only given nine during his first year as president, and three of those were with foreign leaders who were visiting the United States. In contrast, Trump gave 22 press conferences his first year. Barack Obama gave 27. Clinton gave 38, and George H.W. Bush 31. George W. Bush was the least press-conference-accessible president besides Biden, with 19.
Old Joe is hardly more available for press interviews than he is for press conferences. He gave 22 during his first year in office; Trump gave 92, and Obama 156, according to an analysis by Martha Joynt Kumar of Town University, director of the White House Transition Project. Biden has taken questions at other events that are not press conferences or interviews, but this enables him to give brief and cursory answers: “While President Biden has taken questions more often at his events than his predecessors, he spends less time doing so. He provides short answers with few follow-ups when he takes questions at the end of a previously scheduled speech.”
Steven Portnoy of CBS News Radio, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, observed that “fleeting exchanges are insufficient to building the historical record of the president’s views on a broad array of public concerns. We have had scant opportunities in this first year to learn the president’s views on a broad range of public concerns. The more formal the exchange with the press, the more the public is apt to learn about what’s on the man’s mind.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Frank Anderson says
I must share one of my uncle’s favorite stories again. A farmer and his son spent several hours loading watermelons on their horse-drawn wagon. It took a while in the heat to drive to the store. The father, not being a model for my kind of fatherhood, told his son to wait on the wagon while dealing with the store owner. “Keep your mouth shut and nobody will find out what kind of fool you are.”
Along comes a man who notices the really nice watermelons and asks the boy how much. The boy follows his father’s orders and doesn’t answer. The man asks again. Again, the boy stays silent. And a third time! No response. The man walks away saying, “I’m sorry son. You must be some kind of fool.” When the father came out of the store, the boy was crying. “What’s wrong boy?” “I did just like you said and he found out I am a durned fool anyway!” HCT, 1893-1980, my volunteer father by choice #2 in sequence but not rank.
mortimer says
There is no question that doddering Old Joe has always had moments of seriously bad judgment, but the Dems could always trust him to do and say EXACTLY what he was told. So, yes, Old Joe is only pretending to be president, while Ron Klain and others call the shots of him.
Joe’s job is easy: walk on, read what Ron Klain wrote for him and then go lunch and a nap.
Old Joe spent one quarter of the days in 2021 on vacation.
mortimer says
correction: call the shots for him.
Walter Sieruk says
This video segment of “President” pretender Biden making his feeble exit from the press conference room as fast as his weak old legs are able to move is ,by itself, revealing that something is wrong.
Very wrong.
Diane Harvey says
All those pictures when he just turns and walks away are so descriptive of the man and especially his party. They turn their backs to us!
eduardo odraude says
Here is a very cool online Qur’an. It has been put in chronological order (Qur’an’s normally are not in chronological order, but rather the suras/chapters are put in order of length, the longest at the beginning, and getting shorter and shorter as you go.) This online Qur’an is not only chronological, it also has four main themes highlighted in four different colors (1) Allah’s power; 2) unbelievers, 3) believers, 4) jihad. All this makes the Qur’an much easier to read and get the gist of.
http://www.koran-at-a-glance.com/
gravenimage says
Not sure I’d ever call the Qur’an “cool”, Eduardo–but it is certainly useful. Thanks for that link.
Walter Sieruk says
Biden’s handlers have limited his number of press interviews because they’re afraid they he might further show to the American public and to the nations of the world just who terribly weak and feeble minded he really is.
Walter Sieruk says
To rephrase my above comment in a better way,which is that the handlers of Joe Biden have put a limit on the number of press interviews Biden has because they fear that he might show to the American people and the different countries of in the world just how weak and feeble minded he actually is.
Wellington says
How pathetic that America has come to this, i.e., an utter mediocrity who is a half century political hack and who now is not even in full control of the limited intellect he once had.
I have long said that America has never had a dumb President. Well we do now (though I personally refuse to call this dud “President”).
Walter Sieruk says
This is the first time in the of the United States that this nation has no real US President.
Instead this country now has only a criminally installed figurehead.
Infidel says
It’s also the first time that I’ve heard the term ‘prime minister’ used in the context of the US, which doesn’t have that office. According to Sean Spicer, that’s what Ron Klein is called, and it’s apparently he who’s calling the shots. Whether Soros or Obama is behind him is an unanswered question
gravenimage says
It’s happened before, Walter–in the case of sudden illness or injury, as with Abraham Lincoln (I don’t have time to look this up right now). But on a regular basis, and during a first term? This is I believe unprecedented.
PRCS says
Fear not!
Dr. Jill is taking care of everything.
somehistory says
In one of his first times with the press, he asked “nance” if what he said was *ok.*
g.soros is no spring chicken, pelosi is older than dirt, and “bo” is not as young as he believes himself to be. They make a nasty “cabal” of geezers who may all be several bricks short of a full load.
after-all, if china, russia., iran, etc. have their way, the U.S. will go down in flames and the land will be fully available for further take-over…and the evil geezers will have no taxpayer-paid place to live out their final days. ..however few they come to be.
James Lincoln says
So, in the United States right now, we have a Fake President – aided and abetted by a Fake mainstream media.
With a Red / Green alliance.
What could possibly go wrong?
gravenimage says
What’s Biden Hidin’? Holds Fewer Press Conferences and Interviews Than the Last Five Presidents
…………
That’s certainly the impressiion I’ve gotten–and it’s not because of concerns over Covid…
Johnny B says
Sorry to put it like this, but it’s as if Biden has become a symbol of the death and decay of America 🙁
Rufolino says
You mean the “death and decay” of the West. Look at Europe !
Infidel says
No, just America. Under Trump, there was death and decay mainly in Europe and Canada. Under Biden, we’ve joined the club
Johnny B says
I agree western Europe is even worse off than America going full socialist. That’s not exactly news. However, many of us had hoped America could show the way with Trump imperfect as he was/is. He was nonetheless the best president IMO for a very long time, but for some reason the American people finally resisted his ambition to turn the country back in the direction of what it used to be. I know the election probably wasn’t fair and so on, but there was a massive anti-Trump sentiment towards the end of his term. I think they basically want the same thing as the Europeans; international socialism.
OLD GUY says
Biden can’t hold a press conference. His handler are scared to let him in the public where he might have to think for himself. If it is NOT on the teleprompter he’s not supposed to speak. What a leader!
Every leader in the world knows Biden is suffering from dementia and gets confused easily and he has control of our nukes. Well he has the code written down someplace.