The president should be fighting off hoards of willing, brilliant, hard-working folks who wish to be a part of Joe Biden’s massive Unity Movement. But apparently not. It seems that there are not enough folks to answer the phone at the White House who can direct questions and inquiries to the appropriate staffer. When constituents press the issue, well, they hear the big click of disconnection.
The absence of needed staff in the bloviated Biden administration is a tad alarming – yet not surprising. When the press secretary appears to be the kid in seventh grade giving an oral report on the book she never read, things in Bidenland appear to be dicey. Or, perhaps, there are so many applicants for volunteer positions, the line for an interview is clear out to Pennsylvania Avenue. Maybe prospective minions are at home, instead, collecting checks from the government coffers. Regardless, Americans aren’t going to be able to talk to their “House” on matters most concerning.
Operator, Can You Help Me Place This Call?
This cautionary tale of dismissing constituents as irritants was sparked when a woman reached out for help with issues regarding her veteran husband. She committed the worst of offenses: asking for a live person in a specific department. Denied. The person on the other end of the switchboard line said that option “has not been available for over 10 years.” The operator then insisted that getting any response requires filling out a form online and waiting for the anointed ones to care enough to respond.
The caller then went for the low-hanging West Wing fruit, inquiring about the State of the Union (SOTU). Our constituent asked when said important speech might be given. The operator told her to call her state representatives. This is perhaps where the caller screwed up. She persisted:
“I said my legislators don’t give the ‘Address’ the president does and asked again when that might be. He told me he ‘doesn’t answer’ questions. I asked what his role was. He replied to ‘refer callers to the website.’ I asked what if ‘someone doesn’t have a computer or the internet?’ He replied. ‘do you have any valid questions?’”
The conversation went round and round until the frustrated minion attempting to deflect a voter from getting a simple answer blew his stack. He explained there were no comment lines for voters because they didn’t have any people to staff them – like, saving the soul of the nation was not even an important position. And then he had the Barack Obama audacity to hang up on our curious constituent.
Will no one volunteer for the Big Guy?
Please Leave a Message After the Tone
Is this an isolated incident? Could the People’s House be shuttered to, well, the people? Liberty Nation decided to see if this was a molehill and not a mountain of a problem: We called. The nice young woman who answered explained the date for the SOTU was not available. When pressed, the operator transferred our call to a recorded message — for commenting online — without as much as a thank you. The bum’s rush, so to speak.
Did the Biden administration forget about uniting to save the soul of America? Winners do not dodge the press; they bask in the attention. They do not avoid the SOTU, the ultimate venue for self-congratulations, and it is not the way staffers should respond to general and relatively innocuous inquiries.
Perhaps others might have better luck in speaking with a live person at the White House. But since there are fences and the National Guard keeping folks at bay, America’s House may, for the time being, be out of order.
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Read more from Sarah Cowgill.
