President of the basement Joe Biden went over 200 days without granting a sit-down interview, until Sunday night, when he donned a blue suit to answer questions from a friendly 60 Minutes. The timing seemed right, he had passed his climate bill that pretended to be an inflation bill, he gave his Dark Brandon speech, and his approval had ticked up.
But even CBS News’ Scott Pelley, who gave POTUS his light grilling, had to introduce the segment by saying, “But Tuesday, as James Taylor sang Fire and Rain, it seemed like both descended on the President’s party. The Dow plummeted nearly 1300 points after a dismal inflation report.”
Asked about the fact that Americans can barely afford their groceries a cheery Biden gave the equivalent of a “come on, man,” citing that record high inflation has leveled off in recent months. Apparently, the president thinks it’s a major victory that we can all still afford Ramen noodles for now, if not beef or chicken.
Biden touted the fact that gas prices have fallen from obscene to merely offensive. Great. But when asked when Americans might expect the price of literally everything else to dip a bit, he stared into a future with few answers, mumbling about prescription drug prices and how other countries have it worse. This must be the “new normal” that everyone was talking about.
Speaking of the new normal, the pandemic is over. So says our commander-in-chief. But it’s weird because school kids in New York City still can’t play sports without being vaccinated, and nobody who got fired for refusing the jab is getting their job back.
Meanwhile, no foreigner can enter the country without the shot, even to play tennis in the US Open, but those crossing the southern border illegally? Come on in, vax or no vax, as long as you’re not Novak Djokovic. And don’t even think about serving in the US military if you aren’t vaccinated out the wazoo. These are the absurd times in which we live.
Perhaps the biggest news of the interview is that Joe Biden is ready to send our well-vaccinated military to war with China should they attack Taiwan. Once again, Biden broke with the decades-old policy of “strategic ambiguity,” to promise US forces if China launched what he called “an unprecedented attack”.
But here, 60 Minutes did what kids in the industry call a “cut-away” to say that after the interview White House officials made clear that US policy had not changed. Excuse me? US policy is that we don’t say if we would send troops to defend Taiwan, Biden says the Marines are going in if that happens? So, what is the policy? For that matter, who is the president? Isn’t this his call? Isn’t this why he was elected?
This is a recurring feature of the Biden presidency, he tells us over and over that his handlers will get angry with him if he answers questions. Who are these handlers? And shouldn’t Scott Pelley be interviewing them? Since apparently, they are the people actually running and ruining the country?
In other breaking news, Biden danced a little jig about whether he intends to run for re-election. It’s his intention, he told us, “but it’s only an intention, it’s not a firm decision.” That kinda sums his presidency and could compete as a 2024 campaign slogan, “Biden 24, Never A Firm Decision.”
When asked about polarization in the country and the demonizing of political opposition, Biden seemed to forget all about having called half the country “semi-fascists” or his stark red and black remarks in Philadelphia about the dire threat to democracy represented by MAGA republicans.
You see, Biden’s one-night-only Reichstag routine played well with the base, most of his recent approval poll gains are among young Democrats who see him fighting. But Dark Brandon may be hurting Democrats in several senate races, like Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Colorado where GOP candidates have been making gains. It turns out that swing state Democrats don’t actually want to offend the people whose votes they need.
As telling as the questions and the answers were, what also stands out are the queries left unqueried. Biden was asked nothing about the crisis at the Southern border which is now spilling into New York, DC, Chicago and even the tiny enclave of Martha’s Vineyard where locals braved almost a day and a half of 50 illegal immigrant visitors.
Nor was the commander in chief asked about the transgender issue, his administration’s policy is that locker rooms and overnight trips should not be divided by biological sex, they support biological males playing women’s sports. That’s not worth a question? How about Critical Race Theory?
60 Minutes really did the best they could to present to us a president who seems functioning and capable. The locations changed, breaking the interrogation into bite-sized morsels, the vacant look in Biden’s eye was there, but masked as much as possible. They almost had it.
But nobody can watch this interview and feel the least bit at ease with the man leading our nation. When he speaks he makes little sense, and when he does make sense his administration walks it back saying, “pay no heed to grandpa.”
This was meant to be a victory lap for Joe Biden, in the end he will be lucky if it turned out to be a mildly successful pit stop. But hey, just 200 days to wait until the next one
It’s easy to see the White House wants to keep the frequency of these long interviews somewhere between rare and never. Even under the best circumstances, Biden not only seems infirm and feeble, he also doesn’t seem to be conversant in his own administration’s policies. Don’t expect to see the president do another of these any time soon, because the more he talks the worse it gets, and his handlers, whoever they are, know this just as well as we do.
