Uncovered: Biden Appeared To Use Teleprompter in Resurfaced 'Live' TV Interview
By C. Douglas Golden
Published September 14, 2020 at 8:09am
Interviewers have been incredibly indulgent with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden when he gives interviews from the basement of his home, particularly on one account: He seems to be reading his answers off of a teleprompter.
And they have to be noticing. Anderson Cooper is a veteran newsman who’s reported from war zones and interviewed every political figure under the sun. Surely he knew enough to notice, during a segment with Biden last month, that the candidate was looking down and to the left when he gave answers.
In another interview with a Miami TV station, Biden accidentally read the title on his teleprompter talking points, leading to the phrase “Venezuela top line messages” going viral on conservative Twitter. Last week, when he was asked a question, the camera cut to Biden before he was ready and he was forced to tell his staff to “move it up here.”
Biden’s campaign has been cagey about whether he uses a teleprompter during interviews and Q&A periods.
When asked by Fox News’ Bret Baier whether his boss uses canned text when he’s supposed to be spontaneous, Biden spokesman T.J. Ducklo didn’t answer, saying that “this is straight from the Trump campaign’s talking points” and that “it’s trying to distract the American people.”
By not giving a concrete answer, Ducklo said, he wasn’t going to “allow the Trump campaign to funnel their questions through Fox News.”
Whenever a campaign functionary evades a question with that kind of clumsy ineptitude, you can safely assume the worst.
However, if you want confirmation of the fact that Biden’s been very literally staying on script, I present this resurfaced clip from Biden’s appearance on James Corden’s late-night CBS show in April.
The “show and tell” format comes across as a set-up anyway, but check out the reflection about the 1:50 mark when Biden raises a picture of his two sons when they were in college:
You can plainly see that Biden’s reading text off of his computer monitor, either canned or being fed to him offscreen. This drew a pretty strong reaction from Twitter: