A few things are true in life.
The sun rises in the east. A rising tide lifts all boats. Rains fall on the just and the unjust.
And the national media will always defend Democrats.
President Joe Biden now is reaping the benefit of this kinship between his party and journalists, despite having called a reporter a “stupid son of a b–ch.”
The exchange happened on Monday. As Biden’s handlers, as they always do, rustled the media out the door, Peter Doocy of Fox News asked about inflation.
“Will you take questions on inflation then? Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms?” Doocy asked.
“No, it’s a great asset,” Biden snarled back as a hot mic caught his words. “More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.”
Biden’s sarcasm was defended by some just as that. Yet it’s hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or sincere in defending the administration’s profligate ways.
On social media now, liberals are circulating claims that America’s worst inflation in 40 years, which emerged after Biden took office, is not his fault because it’s a global problem, and Biden does not control the supply chain.
And it’s likely no accident that as Americans cite the economy, and more specifically inflation, as the top issue confronting the nation, Republicans are pulling ahead in polling for the 2022 congressional elections.
Yet Biden now has media defenders.
Anti-Trump Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin tweeted “It. was. a. hot. Mic.”
ABC News senior White House correspondent Mary Bruce reported that Biden was “clearly frustrated,” even as she admitted Doocy asked a question about economics at an event about the economy.
On CNN, Brian Stelter, who routinely bashed former President Donald Trump for calling out the media’s lies and hyperbole, defended Biden attacking Doocy. When critics noted how Stelter trashed Trump for referring to NBC’s Chuck Todd as an SOB, Stelter said the context was different.
“Biden was wrong to call Doocy an SOB,” Stelter said. But, he added, “Biden doesn’t berate the media like Trump, so the context for today is different.”
Sure. But the difference between the media’s reaction to Trump insulting, say, Jim Acosta, and Biden is stark, and again reveals the bias conservatives have long complained about.
Just last week, Biden lashed out at two reporters.
When Philip Wegmann of RealClearNews asked Biden during his much-ballyhooed news conference last week about comparing conservatives to racists, segregationists, and Confederates, Biden belittled him.
He denied saying what he actually said, then added, “Go back and read what I said and tell me if you think I called anyone who voted on the side of the position taken by Bull Connor that they were Bull Connor? And that is an interesting reading of English. Yeah, I assume you got into journalism because you like to write.”
After the event, Wegmann tweeted, “Well, now that makes two presidents who have yelled at me—Trump and Biden.”
Also last week, Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich, curious about Biden’s handling of Russia’s military buildup on the Ukrainian border, asked Biden why he was “waiting” for Putin “to make the first move.”
“What a stupid question,” Biden replied.
Last June, at a press conference in Switzerland, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Biden about his ability to change Vladimir Putin’s aggressive behavior, and how he had a “constructive meeting” with Putin when the Russian leader denied committing cyberattacks against the U.S. and human rights abuses elsewhere
“If you don’t understand that,” Biden snapped at Collins, “you’re in the wrong business.”
Biden’s retort in that instance rallied defenders to Collins – likely because she’s a woman and works for liberal-approved CNN.
For instance, New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi tweeted in reply, “If you’re the most powerful person in the world and you can’t field questions from the media without losing your temper, maybe you’re in the wrong business.”
It’s all part of a pattern – and not just for journalists.
Biden has called members of the public or other politicians “a damn liar,” “a horse’s ass,” “fat,” “Neanderthal,” and, lest we forget, the classic “lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
Biden, who started his term by promising to fire “on the spot” anyone in his administration who disrespected others, routinely lashes out as a gruff, bitter, angry old man who doesn’t like to be challenged. So much for all that civility he promised.
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