The Biden-Harris campaign is aware that it has allies in the media, and campaign officials are taking advantage of this one-sided romance by circumventing even the most softball of questions. Have some of those loyal reporters had enough of the cold shoulder, though?
The alphabet soup of the dinosaur media is confident it will have its vengeance for 2016 by carrying former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) to the White House in November, a strategy that would eviscerate any last vestige of integrity and independence.
Bobby Soxers Get Ignored
NBC News reporter Deepa Shivaram, who is a part of Harris’ traveling press corps, vented on Twitter that the vice presidential nominee “has not once formally taken questions from the press” since being tapped as Biden’s running mate. She has answered convenient and easy questions that were either shouted by on-the-ground journalists or by friendly news organizations (CNN and NBC) in sit-down interviews.
Shivaram’s colleagues shared her frustrations, including The Daily Beast’s political editor Sam Stein, who noted that the Biden campaign’s reluctance to speak to the press “has a foul stench of insecurity.” The Hill’s Joe Concha pointed out that you cannot “even point to one major moment, interview or soundbite from Harris to this point.”
(Photo by Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images)
President Trump, on the other hand, has fielded nearly 900 more questions from reporters than Biden over the last two months. According to the New York Post, Trump has responded to five times the amount of queries that Biden has answered between July 19 and September 15: 1,141 versus 274. The Daily Caller noted that the Biden campaign called a lid – meaning the candidate has finished campaigning for the day – eight times before noon, during the month of September.
It has been no surprise that the president commented on his opponents’ lack of access. Trump recently told a crowd in Pennsylvania that “I’m working my a– off,” while Biden is “not going to be anywhere today.” He also tweeted that Biden “is a very LOW ENERGY INDIVIDUAL, and our Country cannot make it in these exciting, but complex and competitive times, with a Low Energy President !!!”
But here is a question: Does it matter if these traveling reporters speak to Biden or Harris?
Why Are You So Great?
The mainstream media have failed to prove that they would ask any hard-hitting questions to Biden or Harris if given the opportunity. You only need to take a gander at an early September press conference to see what a grilling by The Resistance looks like.
CBS News correspondent Ed O’Keefe asked Biden why he was not “angrier” about Trump’s reported and disputed “losers” and “suckers” comments regarding fallen soldiers. Atlantic staff writer Edward-Isaac Dovere wondered what Biden thinks about the president’s “soul and the life he leads.” CNN’s MJ Lee was curious to see if Biden thought Trump’s mockery of the former vice president wearing a mask would deter Americans to not sport face coverings.
Washington Examiner executive editor Philip Klein made an interesting point about why these journalists are afraid to ask Biden anything that is harder than what he thinks of [insert city here]:
“4 years of ‘but her emails’ taunts worked. Reporters are worried that if they ask Biden a challenging question they’ll be heckled as ‘complicit’ by the people whose opinions they care about.”
During the Democratic primaries last year, puppy love political reporters embarrassed the journalism profession by going shopping with Senator Harris at a South Carolina boutique. Footage from February 2019 highlighted CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston, NBC News political reporter Ali Vitali, and CBS News political reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns merrily encouraging Harris to try on a sequined jacket. The spectacle added to the notion that the press is the PR wing of the Democratic Party.
Suffice it to say, if any of these members of the press were given an entire day with Biden and Harris, you should not anticipate anything that would force the candidates to feel the slightest bit uncomfortable. The questions would range from “Mr. Biden, how proud are you to have the first female minority as your running mate?” to “Sen. Harris, what makes you so magnificent?” The questions would be 85-mph meatballs without any hair on them right over the plate.
Coasting Coast to Coast
It is easy to see that the Biden-Harris (Harris-Biden?) campaign is coasting along, attempting to avoid gaffes that would harm its chances of winning in November. Many of the polls suggest Biden holds a comfortable lead, but as Liberty Nation has reported, his position is beginning to deteriorate with about a month to go. Perhaps Biden will emerge from his Delaware basement and Harris will step away from the mirror to face a friendly media to answer questions about how Trump is Literally Hitler™ and why voters would be privileged to have the duo lead the nation. Ultimately, the electorate should not expect anything of substance to be lobbed to either candidate. The Fourth Estate will worship at the altar of the Democratic ticket and feed Biden and Harris grapes while accusing Trump of firebombing Jonathan Karl and his White House Press Corps.
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Read more from Andrew Moran.
