A series of events and revelations marred the first full day of President Joe Biden's role at the head of government. While it is clear that the honeymoon period cannot last forever, one would expect it to last beyond 48 hours. However, it will perhaps come as little surprise that a president who announced he was on a "wartime" footing to deal with the "four crises" he plans to make the pillars of his presidency finds himself in crisis from the beginning.
President Biden was not alone in his inauspicious endeavors. A Fourth Estate seemingly happy to spin the next four years as a period of rainbows and unicorns may just be more of a hindrance than a help.
Plan for No Plan
CNN announced that the Trump administration had left behind no plans whatsoever for the COVID vaccine rollout and that the Biden government would have to start from scratch. This was labeled a "great scoop" and used to once again hammer the Donald Trump presidency. Quoting anonymous sources, CNN reported that key figures had "nothing for us to rework" and that the lack of a plan was "just further affirmation of complete incompetence."
It turns out, however, that this was just more questionable news.
Politico editor Sam Stein commented on the story, tweeting, "Biden folks are spinning here or trying to lower the bar strategically. There was, indeed, a plan from Trump. I listened in on govs calls on vaccine distribution. The plan had obvious shortcomings. but to say there's nothing to rework is not true."
A prominent Washington newspaper notes that the piece was a "gambit to lower expectations" and that, "Either the situation on the ground is better than team Biden acknowledges, or Biden's target is less ambitious than it seems."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, responding to a question of whether the new administration was “starting from scratch,” replied: "We certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution." This was likely referring to the almost 40 million doses of vaccine that have already been distributed around the country.
Vaccinations are already approaching one million per day, making President Biden's plan of 100 million doses in 100 days seem somewhat less than grand. By spinning a story of "no plan" and being caught out, CNN has made President Biden seem not only unambitious but less competent than the Trump administration.
Weaponized Impeachment?
When politicians make the impeachment process a tool of government to punish political enemies, they shouldn't be surprised when that tool is used on themselves. While President Trump awaits his own Senate trial, newly-minted Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced impeachment articles against Joe Biden.
The representative says that Biden abused his vice-presidential office in a "quid pro quo" scheme to have a Ukrainian prosecutor fired while investigating Burisma Holdings to protect his son's business interests. Taylor Greene's decision is political in nature, but it has been argued that the two impeachments of Donald Trump were also partisan actions.
This impeachment effort will almost certainly fail to launch. Yet Pandora's Box has been opened; how many more articles of impeachment will be filed during Biden's term in office?
YouTube Shilling?
On the official White House YouTube page, strange shenanigans are afoot. Of the eight videos posted since President Biden's inauguration, the ratio of "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" has been less than impressive. In fact, it seems that on average, each Biden video receives at least three times as many downvotes as it does "likes." But the Biden administration should not fear, because YouTube is on hand to help.
Within hours of the videos going up, YouTube began removing the "dislikes," more than 16,000 of them. Speaking to The Epoch Times, the Google-owned video platform stressed that it was only removing activity that it thought to be inauthentic. The spokesperson did not elaborate on how the company determines a genuine downvote.
Good for Thee, But Not for Me
Within hours of signing an executive order mandating the wearing of masks on all federal properties and grounds, President Biden was caught not wearing a mask in direct violation of his own rule. He removed his mask to make a speech at the Lincoln Memorial – which is indeed on federal land; other members of the Biden family were also seen without masks in place.
When questioned on the matter, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that "I think we have bigger issues to worry about at this moment in time." This dismissal of Biden's rulebreaking irked many on social media who questioned why, if there were more "important things" to worry about, did President Biden choose his first day to make an executive order on the matter.
Ruling from on High
When newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron summoned 900 politicos to the palace of Louis XIV in Versailles in 2017, he announced that he would be a "Jupitarian" ruler and act as "a remote, dignified figure, like the Roman god of gods, who weighs his rare pronouncements carefully." But that was France, and the American public, nor even American politicians, will let that kind of attitude fly in the United States.
Pronouncements without policy and laws without lawmakers will likely not solve the four crises at the center of Joe Biden's presidency - climate change, racial inequality, the economy, and the pandemic. He has painted himself as the man to deal with the nation's problems. If his first full day in office was anything to go by, President Biden will find himself lurching from one crisis to another; but perhaps they are crises of his own creation.
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Read more from Mark Angelides.
