Biden's Blatant Attempt at Afghanistan 'Damage Control' Backfires By Joe Saunders
August 19, 2021 at 12:53pm
Nobody can do a backfire like Joe Biden.
The man currently presiding over the country’s worst international humiliation since Jimmy Carter held the office of president probably thought it was a good idea to limit his media interviews to ABC News’ generally reliable Democratic lapdog George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday.
But when the interview in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan actually aired, the results could not have been what the Biden White House was hoping for — because the backlash is brutal.
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On its face, the idea of using Stephanopoulos as the exclusive medium for Biden to dodge the disaster might have made sense.
The former communications director for the Bill Clinton White House in Clinton’s first term has been passing himself off as a “journalist” on ABC for more than two decades now, carrying water for Democratic causes and even inserting himself into Republican primary elections as a debate “moderator.” (An utterly pointless but inflammatory Stephanopoulos question about contraception during a 2012 GOP primary debate ended up driving media coverage for days and distracting the campaign of eventual nominee Mitt Romney.)
So when Biden apparently feared to face questions from the regular Washington press corps — despite being more coddled by the mainstream media than even his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama — Stephanopoulos must have seemed like a logical alternative.
The only problems were that, for many Americans, the tactic was a transparent attempt to get a friendly audience.
First of all, Stephanopoulos is a known political operator. For a Democratic president to turn to him and present it as some kind of journalistic reckoning is the equivalent of former President Donald Trump making his case to Fox News’ Sean Hannity and pretending the interview was objective. (To Hannity’s credit, he’s always been honest about his political leanings. Stephanopoulos et al should take a lesson.)
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Poster Comment:
C'mon man.