Don's Tuesday Column

        THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   3/30/2021

            Whole lotta lyin’ and cheatin’ goin’ on

Take Joe Biden’s press conference…please (play on the famous Henny Youngman line about his wife, who he dearly loved for 60 years).

One might doubt, based on Biden’s presser, that he will discharge his duties for even 6, let alone 60 months. Reliable Democrat apologists like Fox News’ shill, Chris Wallace, will wax prosaic over the performance of His Fraudulency, the Incapacitated Deceiver, Joe Biden. Those who take exception to my disrespect should recall that, at a 2019 campaign event, Biden completely agreed with a supporter that Donald Trump was not a “legitimate” president, nearly 3 years into President Trump’s term.

Here's a word-for-uh-word quote: “So, the best way to get somethin’ done, if you, if ya holds near and dear to you that you uh uhm like to be able…uh anyway (some indecipherable sounds), I…we’re ta get a lot done and if we have to, if there’s complete lockdown and chaos as a consequence of the filibuster, then we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about…OK, uhm, hang on…uh…sorry…oh, Sing Ming, Miss Kim (correct name was Seung Min Kim, of the Washington Post since 2018, after 8 years with Politico, also with CNN)”

It took 10 minutes to transcribe that apparent random-association of filibuster analysis and gibberish. Come on, man. Here’s the thing: Biden had unprecedented briefing materials, and not the kind that Trump’s press person, Kayleigh McEnany, wielded with dozens of tabs and 10-point text to be able to give precise responses to any question involving President Trump’s positions or policies (Biden’s Jen Psaki often can’t even do that).

One of Joe Biden’s “cheat sheets” was titled, in 14-point, “THE PRESIDENT” to make sure he kept that straight. Below, in bold type, were his 2 or 3 line “bullet points” on topics such as “Infrastructure.” One camera shot caught Biden’s hand-written notes, possibly on 2 missiles fired by North Korea; Biden gave a lengthy answer to an obviously prepared question from a reporter. Here’s the thing: Biden read the response word-for-uh-word from his sheet, so someone should ask if the q-and-a was staged. Come on, man.

The 10 reporters called on were reliable liberal Democrat transcribers from the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NBC/ABC/CBS/CNN/PBS/AP and Univision; not Fox or any other outlet that couldn’t be depended on to toe the line. His “cheat sheet” guide to those reporters, as a camera showed, had face shots, names, outlets and hand-written, circled numbers (1, 5, 8, 9, and F). Wallace: “I’ve never seen any POTUS do that.” (credit to Nick Arama, redstate.com, for the screen grabs)

Talk about obsequious and adoring, “A reporter from PBS prefaced a question about the border with the observation that the problems result from the fact that Biden is a ‘moral, decent man’” (Powerlineblog.com). The kids are in decent cages with plastic walls, not chain-link fence—they’re still crowded at many times the capacity of the facilities.

That teed-up “moral, decent” softball led Biden to self-effacingly take credit for…immigrants? The fawning nature of the press-sheep was obvious for what didn’t happen: Not once did a “reporter” interrupt Biden 10 seconds into an answer, or ever, as they herd-like did with every Trump presser.

“Biden blatantly lied about the border. I think this is why the press conference was called on short notice: the border is a disaster and the administration is starting to bleed politically. So Biden resorted to the typical expedient of the Democratic Party politician. He lied, absurdly claiming that the large majority of illegal immigrants are being turned back at the border, contrary to all news reports and video documentation.” Senator Lindsay Graham held up a graph showing the current spike of illegal aliens—comparing Biden/Psaki to “Baghdad Bob” who denied Americans were in Baghdad even as tanks were shown rumbling down streets.

Michael Goodwin’s New York Post column made the front page, “Stumbling Biden lies, and media swoons—Glazed and Confused,” calling it “A sickening spectacle.” Historian and journalist Dominic Green (UK Spectator) captured the moment: “The White House is no longer the home of democracy. It’s a reality TV series in a care home.” (credit Scott Johnson, powerlineblog.com for the title of this column)

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan even warned her fellow Democrat scribes about their behavior lest they embarrass Biden: “the pressure will also be on the White House press corps themselves…It’s a major test for news organizations” covering the “less showy” and “much more truthful” Biden.

Maybe, given the low bar of having had no press events, reporters consider that Biden has told no fibs. While admitting “The burgeoning number of migrants—including thousands of children—is a legitimate concern and a valid story,” Sullivan plainly warns against showing Biden “in just as critical a light as they often did Trump” –regardless of whether that’s deserved.” Implication: it’s not deserved.

Biden lie: Trump was just pushing unaccompanied minors back into Mexico; the truth is that they were flown to their home country and transferred to social-service agencies. Biden lies: Trump let minors starve and die; Trump hadn’t diminished the flow at the border. If they had any integrity, fact-checkers would be all over it.

Photojournalist John Moore has covered Border Patrol activities over four administrations; he is only able to cover Biden’s border policies from the Mexican side of the border with long-range lenses. He followed a B.P. transport bus but was emphatically told to back off before he could record it with photos. As Senator Ted Cruz has said of his efforts to investigate, Biden’s “zero access” policy is unprecedented in American history. It’s a crisis—a cluster bomb of wrong-headed, soft-hearted, misguided incompetence.