Joe Biden is the kind of guy you could imagine yelling at a bunch of rambunctious kids with a shake of his gnarled fist, “Get off my lawn!”
The president, who turns 80 this month, likes to play the avuncular sage offering astute aphorisms, but deep down, hidden behind that smiling and soothing facade, is a furious man with little patience for … anything.
Biden’s anger management issues have popped up from time to time over the years (he’s been sucking off the government teat since 1973, after all), but they’ve been flaring up far more often of late, so much so that the hyper-liberal “Saturday Night Live” mocked the president over the weekend.
The goof, which came on “Weekend Update,” began with a shot of Biden and host Colin Jost noting that Biden had just given a speech in Detroit. “Let me start off with two words,” Biden opened his speech, “made in America.”
“Biden was then heard criticizing reporters at the White House for shouting questions at him, questions like, ‘What year it?’ and ‘Who’s the current president?’ Also, they weren’t reporters, they were doctors,” Jost said to much laughter.
When SNL is mocking a Democratic president, you know something has gone wrong in the matrix. But that’s just how bad Biden is at … everything.
Ramblin’ Joe was up in New York on Sunday in an 11th-hour attempt to save Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s job as governor. His speech was interrupted by climate protesters, which enraged Biden.
“No more drilling,” Biden snapped at a climate heckler. “There is no more drilling. I haven’t formed any new drilling,” Biden said.
He then got befuddled when he tried to return to his speech and nearly stumbled off the stage at one point. “‘Oops, stepping on a – hmm – it’s black. Anyway,” Biden said after he teetered.
As Democrats have plunged in the midterm election polls — nearly every pollster predicts a “red tsunami” on Tuesday, with many saying Republicans take the House in a landslide and likely win back the Senate, too — Biden has grown increasingly cantankerous.
Biden, who has been hunkering down in his Delaware basement during the campaign season, was asked late last month why he has hit the trail for so few candidates.
“John Fetterman’s going to appear with you today in Pennsylvania, but there haven’t been that many candidates campaigning with you —” CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang began on October 20.
Biden angrily cut her off, leaning forward into the bank of microphones and yelling, “That’s not true!”
“There’ve been 15,” he insisted. “Count kid, count!”
That’s what Biden said, even though the White House later altered the transcript to say something different and less angry.
Another reporter got in a question, saying: “Mr. President, should there be any restr — should there be restrictions on abortion at all? Any restrictions on abortion at all?”
“Yes. Yes, there should be,” Biden said.
“What should they be?”
“In Roe v. Wade. Read it, man. You’ll get educated,” Biden spat.
Lokman Vural Elibol/Getty Images
For the record, I covered the White House for a dozen years, and, as the Fourth Estate, that’s our job — we ask the president questions. What’s more, Biden has done far fewer press conferences than his predecessors, so reporters have been consigned to yelling questions over the prop wash of the Marine One helicopters.
But Biden also mocked the media at a White House meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog (the president allowed the press inside before their talk — an old trick by presidents who don’t want to discuss the discussion and can just clear out reporters after making a statement).
“Thank you very much, press, we need you guys to move, thank you very much,” White House wranglers said as they herded out reporters, who steadfastly shouted questions.
“Among the only press in the world that does this. Seriously, seriously,” Biden said derisively to Herzog.
Damn right we are. That’s literally the first thing the Founders added to the Bill of Rights after they forgot to enshrine freedom of the press in the Constitution (ooh, colonial burn. Yup, no one is safe).
Biden derided former President Donald Trump’s adversarial relationship with the media, but he often does exactly the same thing — although often under his breath.
Biden responded: “It’s totally irrelevant, but I’ll answer. OK. If I verified he complimented me. He thanked me for the immediate response we had.”
In July, a reporter asked about reports citing economists saying a recession is “more likely than ever.”
“Not the majority of them aren’t saying that. Come on, don’t make things up,” said Biden, who makes up things all the time.
And in January, Biden was caught mumbling about Fox News’ Peter Doocy, calling him a “stupid son of a b****” for asking if inflation would be a serious “political liability” for Democrats in the midterms (the honest answer: Yes, bigtime).
A week later, Biden ripped Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich for asking a “stupid question” about why the U.S. was taking no action and was instead waiting for Russian President Vladimir Putin to make the “first move” on Ukraine.
That’s the real Biden. He’s not the soft-spoken grandfather he pretends to be. He’s angry if anyone questions him about anything, and he lashes out — no doubt most often back in the Oval Office with loyal supporters nodding their heads in unison.
And that explains why Biden’s closing message for the 2022 midterms is filled with anger and hate for the 74 million Americans who voted for his predecessor. He’s about to learn it’s not a winning formula.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.