As the Daily Wire reported, “On Thursday, after going his first two months in office without holding a press conference — the longest streak in modern U.S. history — Joe Biden finally answered questions from reporters in the White House.”
“Biden first delivered a short speech celebrating his administration’s achievements regarding COVID-19, before calling on pre-selected members of the press to field various questions,” the Daily Wire added.
Biden’s first press conference was an unmitigated disaster, with the President oscillating between blatant falsehoods, vocal outbursts, and strange rants which often trailed off into silence after he seemed to forget what he was saying.
Certain members of the media, however, preferred to stand by the Democratic Party leader. Here are some of the most ridiculous acts of propagandizing nonsense from the legacy media in response to Biden’s calamitous press conference.
The Washington Post — “Biden excels at his first news conference. The media embarrass themselves.”
To be fair, “conservative” Jennifer Rubin is half correct — this conclusion is embarrassing. Throughout her bizarre opinion piece, Rubin parroted Biden’s falsehoods regarding border crossings, saying “He pointed out that there was a higher surge under his predecessor last spring, which certainly was not because migrants believed the former president was a ‘nice’ guy.”
Rubin applauded Biden’s answers to media questions, writing “In his lengthy responses to questions on the border, he showed his skill in de-escalating issues.” Indeed, Rubin repeated her celebration of Biden’s abilities, saying “Biden spoke in great detail and length to show not only his mastery of the issues but also to suck tension and conflict out of the room.”
To conclude, Rubin even criticized the media’s failure to ask the questions she deemed necessary, adding “Their failure to ask about the pandemic, the recession, anti-Asian violence, climate change or even infrastructure (Biden had to bring it up himself) was nothing short of irresponsible.”
The Washington Post — “The most impressive part of Biden’s news conference? He has a plan and is sticking to it.”
In this opinion column by Gary Abernathy, the tone was less celebratory than that of Rubin’s, but it did conclude that Biden’s performance was worth adulation.
“But overall, Biden was good. He called on about 10 or 11 reporters and held forth for an hour or so. His habit of trailing off mid-thought is probably more an indication of deciding not to say something than of losing his train of thought. At least, that’s the benefit of the doubt we should give him for now,” Abernathy wrote.
“If anything, Thursday’s long-anticipated news conference was pretty dry and boring. If he does it only once in a blue moon, that will probably be just fine.”
Time Magazine — “Joe Biden Proved a Press Conference Doesn’t Have to Be a Spectacle”
In a similar manner to Abernathy’s column, Philip Elliott attempted to move the goalposts of success for Biden, judging any performance which doesn’t end in all-out war as a win for the Biden administration.
“There were no stunts or name calling. ‘Fake News’ was never hurled around, nor were personal insults the flavor of the day. The closest thing we got to a cliff-hanger at President Joe Biden’s first full press conference on Thursday was that he would have more details about his infrastructure plans when he visits Pittsburgh. The most glaring error of fact was on that last point: Biden said he’d be traveling to Pittsburgh on Friday when the White House had it on the schedule for Wednesday,” Elliott wrote, making the ridiculous claim that Biden’s “most glaring error” was a simple schedule change, and not that he pulled multiple statistics regarding the border crisis out of thin air.
Elliott applauded Biden’s “command of the facts” again, despite Biden’s multiple fact-checked falsehoods.
“Where Trump glossed over details and promised plans that never materialized, Biden had a command of the facts and, at times, excused himself for going into too much detail,” he wrote.
There was also a heavy dose of overly-good-faith-editorialization we have come to expect from the legacy media.
“Biden took follow-up questions, asked if reporters were getting what they needed. He checked his watch so as not to keep his audience too long. He was at the podium for an hour and two minutes,” Elliott added, assuming that Biden’s glance at his watch was because he cared about his audience, rather than his nap time.
Vox — “Fox News’s coverage of Biden’s press conference was hilariously petty”
Fresh off his social media collapse after appearing to mischaracterize the words of a police captain in Atlanta, Vox’s Aaron Rupar attempted to construct a “gotcha” narrative against Fox News.
After his irrelevant and nonsensical “attack” on Fox News’ reporting on the number of press conferences provided by Biden, Rupar then provided some added commentary on Biden’s performance.
“But the press conference will make it tougher for the network to insinuate that Biden is hiding something. His responses to questions were largely coherent and thorough — undercutting claims Sean Hannity has been making on a nightly basis about Biden hiding because he’s in decline,” Rupar wrote.
“Largely coherent and thorough” is delightfully subjective, of course.
The Nation — “Biden Meets, and Defeats, the Press”
Writing for The Nation, Joan Walsh claimed that the press conference was indeed a disaster…for the White House press corps.
“Predictably, and fairly, Biden faced multiple questions about the so-called ‘crisis’ at the border. But he fended off several odd queries about whether somehow his reputation for decency was attracting more migrants. He answered, correctly, that the surge is a seasonal thing,” Walsh wrote, also parroting the fact-checked falsehood regarding border crossings.
Later, Walsh commended Biden for handling “loaded questions with moral passion and clarity,” and then concluded that the lack of questions on COVID-19 proved that “he’s handling it well.”
Finally, Walsh wrote that “I give his first press conference delivery equally high marks — and I hope the White House press corps tries to rise to the level of his performance, because that was a shit show.”
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.