President Joe Biden appeared Thursday night for what was his third CNN town hall appearance in a year’s time.
Held in Baltimore and moderated by noted Democrat apologist and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, as per the norm it was a disastrous affair with Biden at times weirdly whispering answers, making a preposterous claim about a “border visit” that never happened, and then quite literally mocking the concept of freedom at another point during the invitation-only (read: highly scripted) Q&A.
But in a remarkable series of events that may very well be a first in the history of social media as well as presidential history, Biden’s infamously aggressive handlers were actually issuing corrections and clarifications in real-time to some of the claims he made, sending messages to various reporters who would then repost or paraphrase to Twitter what they’d been told by the handler.
For instance, PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor wrote a tweet recapping Biden’s statement about using the National Guard to help with the supply chain crisis:
She received an email from a “White House official” not long after that provided a pretty big clarification to Biden’s comments:
In another example, Bloomberg News White House reporter Josh Wingrove noted he had received “some clarity” from a “White House official” on Biden’s statement about raising the corporate and personal tax rates:
Wingrove himself helpfully assisted both Biden and the “official” by noting his “response could be read either way”:
And after Voice of America reporter Steve Herman tweeted Biden’s answer to a question from an invited audience member about defending Taiwan if need be from a China attack . . .
…Politico national security reporter Alex Ward shared a very important update from a “WH spox”:
Screengrabs have been snagged for posterity’s sake:
Without getting into whether or not their fact checks were accurate, it was pretty amazing and – again – likely unprecedented to see this happen to a sitting U.S. President by his own team.
What they did not correct/clarify but should have in the interest of not embarrassing the POTUS even more than he was already embarrassing himself was Biden’s answer to Cooper’s question as to if he planned on visiting the southern border to see the crisis first hand. Let’s take a look at Biden’s answer first, and then White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s hilarious attempt on Friday to bolster the lie:
“I’ve been there before and I haven’t – I mean, I know it well. I guess I should go down. But the whole point of it is I haven’t had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down. I’ve been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion worth of damage done by – by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world.”
As it turns out, that “visit” was a 2008 drive-by where he passed by the border on the way to a campaign stop. When Psaki was asked about it by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy Friday, the most amazing answer was given:
Needless to say, a 2008 “drive-through” by then-VP nominee Joe Biden does not constitute expertise and knowledge about the border situation even then, let alone the current crisis, the blame for which can be laid squarely at the feet of Joe Biden himself. This was like suggesting a random bicycling tourist riding past the White House made one a respected, sought-after presidential historian. Just crazy stuff, insulting to everyone’s intelligence, really.
Biden’s tendency to, shall we say “stray from the facts” Thursday night had this Twitter user weighing in with the following observation:
The answer, of course, is “yes” – to both. On the other hand, the only questions left at this point are:
Just who the heck is running this country? Joe Biden or his handlers? It’s safe to say that either way, we’re screwed.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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