It’s nearly impossible to get as much favorable press coverage as President Biden received in the first two years of his administration.
Compare him to former President Trump, for example. The Washington Post kept a running total of all the “false or misleading claims” Trump made, no matter how insignificant or irrelevant they happened to be. By combing through every word the man uttered about just about anything, the Post managed to assemble “30,573 false or misleading claims” he made while in office.
What was the quality of these falsehoods? Here are a few hints. One example, counted 250 times by the Post’s editors, was: “We rebuilt the United States military.” Another, counted nearly 500 times in the Post tally, was a typical presidential boast: “We also built the greatest economy in the history of the world.” Perhaps it was a silly thing for Trump to say — given even a slightly charitable interpretation, this statement had been true at every point since mid-2010. But it also remained true until 2021, when the pandemic hit.
When Trump was president, the whole point of fact-checking is not to weigh such statements for their veracity but to find some way of interpreting them as false.
Biden, in contrast, has repeatedly claimed to have cut the deficit by almost $2 trillion (four Pinocchios) and to have marched in the Civil Rights Movement (pants on fire), among many other things. Just this past fall he was still telling that odd story of his about being detained in South Africa decades ago, despite abundant evidence that it never happened.
And yes, Biden’s claim to have “lowered the deficit — the debt” was at last eventually given “a Bottomless Pinocchio” by the Post. But his persistent mendacity (if this is how we are to judge presidents) has not filtered into their other coverage. Instead, equally implausible claims are simply taken at face value in the paper’s headlines: “Biden touts deficit reduction amid high inflation”; “Biden touts plunging deficit as GOP prepares for spending fights”; “Biden budget pivots to deficit concerns while boosting military, domestic programs.”
Such Biden statements are not constantly qualified as coming from someone with a habit of lying about consequential matters. And Biden has no rolling counter for the thousands of falsehoods that could surely be concocted, if only we interpret them the right way.
It seems that the media watchdogs are sleeping through his administration. Or at least, they have been. Is that now changing?
With the election approaching and Biden’s approval rating chained up in the basement, the legacy media face a choice: Continue to prop up Biden, or try to nudge him aside for someone more acceptable. This may account for the suddenly negative turn in coverage.
Few liberal journalists have openly called for Biden to ride off into the sunset. But the tone of the coverage of him is changing, as indicated by The Atlantic’s choice to run a piece titled, “Step Aside, Joe Biden,”
Biden’s “brand” in the media has always been that of a statesman and family man — just a nice old guy who has dedicated his life to public service. Now we’re seeing more and more stories about how wealthy he and his family have gotten without really offering or producing any good or service to justify it. Each new revelation about Hunter Biden’s conduct only leads to more questions and more revelations.
Suddenly, we are starting to hear stories about Biden’s temper. This time, Axios is the one to break the unspoken embargo: “Behind closed doors, Biden has such a quick-trigger temper that some aides try to avoid meeting alone with him. Some take a colleague, almost as a shield against a solo blast.”
But Biden’s temper has been on display his entire career. The media have done him the favor of overlooking it to the extent possible, but is hasn’t always been possible. Recall how, in 1988, he jumped down the throat of a voter for asking about his grades in law school, which he then lied about in his angry answer. When running in 2020, Biden snapped at an Iowa voter for questioning him. He challenged another to a push-up contest for asking about young Hunter. He eventually derided the man for his girth for good measure.
Imagine how much more we’d hear about this sort of behavior — how much more entertaining this presidency would really be — if it were Trump’s instead.
The left is getting worried about Biden’s presidency. One more ill-timed slip of the brain, one more triple fall up the stairs, and the man’s unfitness to serve could doom his reelection campaign, ushering in a second Trump administration. But the media cannot be seen as pushing Biden out, because that would only lead to questions about why they have been propping him up so long.
So they have to nudge him without being too forceful. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is waiting in the wings, but he has to stay there until Biden steps aside, lest he be perceived as the elder-abusing opportunist.
It’s fun to watch those who insisted Biden was perfectly fit for office in 2020 shift to a defensive posture and pray for his retirement.
They aren’t turning against him, per se, they just want him to go away.
Derek Hunter is host of “The Derek Hunter Podcast” and a former staffer for the late Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.).