Media Aren’t Upset That Biden Is Senile, They’re Frustrated They Can’t Conceal It

Shortly after Biden’s disastrous debate ended Thursday, Ben Rhodes tweeted: “Just think about what that debate looked like to people and leaders around the world.” Rhodes, a loyal Democrat soldier, was careful not to say that everyone was far more concerned about how the current president came off than Donald Trump, but he didn’t have to.

Besides, the concern abroad over Biden’s mental state wasn’t exactly new. Just a few weeks ago, concern over Biden’s addled appearances at the G7 summit was reported on unsparingly by the foreign press without the repugnant “don’t believe your eyes and ears” qualifications applied by the turnspits in the American media.

The only reason anyone ever believed Biden was up to the job is that they were lied to, even though most Americans have always understood Biden has been exhibiting signs of dementia before he ever became president. At this point, it’s impossible to deny that Democrats and their media allies have betrayed and endangered America by spending the last few years lying to us about Biden’s age-related mental competency.

Of course, it’s only fitting that Rhodes would come around, however circumspectly, to admitting that as far as Biden’s concerned, the wheel’s turning but the hamster is dead. Rhodes, “the boy wonder of the Obama White House,” is chiefly famous for admitting in print that he openly manipulated reporters on behalf of the president to push Obama’s ill-advised Iran deal because the “average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.” Rhodes and his colleagues even bragged that certain reporters were so dedicated to helping them push their foreign policy narrative that they would just “find everything and retweet it.”

While this admission was briefly scandalous, it was only notable because Rhodes had merely said out loud what everyone knew to be true: The Beltway press corps will print whatever Democrat politicians tell them to, no matter how outrageous or even dangerous for America’s national security their policies are.

Indeed, in Thursday’s debate, Trump would rightfully hammer Biden for turning on the money spigot to the world’s leading state sponsor of terror after he turned it off during his presidency. Naturally, Iran was flowing money to Hamas, which helped trigger the current war in Israel, as well as the Houthis, whom Biden took off the terror watch list almost as soon as he took office as a sop to their paymasters in Tehran. The Houthis have now spent months attacking ships in the Red Sea, exacerbating America’s inflation woes as well as causing major environmental disasters.

But the media largely shrugged when Obama started flying planes to Iran with hundreds of millions in cash and Rhodes told them not to care about it. The media seemed to care even less when the Biden administration decided to give Iran access to $10 billion more a short time after they were responsible for killing American soldiers.

Yet the media narrative that has been landed on following the debate, which is more a matter of consolation than accuracy, is that while Biden appeared frail and incompetent, his character still shined through standing next to a serial liar like Donald Trump who lied throughout the debate. Oh and did we mention Donald Trump is a lying liar? He lies, you know.

One need not defend Trump’s aggrandizing rhetoric and personal peccadillos to acknowledge that it’s not obvious to most voters that Biden is the better or more honest person. Indeed, Biden’s own lies, immoral behavior, embrace of racists, and foreign corruption with his felonious, sex-trafficker of a son are plenty egregious even by Washington standards.

But for those who insist Biden is objectively more honest, particularly those in the media, here’s a question they should be forced to answer: What lie did Trump tell in Thursday’s debate more damnable than Biden’s claim that he’s “the only president this century” that did not have any troops “dying anywhere in the world”?

Just a few months ago, Biden’s State of the Union address was interrupted by the screaming of the anguished father of one of the 13 service members who were killed in Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Yet this prostest barely registered in the media, when we all know such a heartrending display would be used as a cudgel against any Republican. And that’s wholly aside from the fact that there’s a merit to the argument that the reckless nature of the Afghanistan withdrawal means Biden bears real responsibility for their deaths.

Of course, don’t expect anyone to acknowledge the real problem here. It’s not just that voters are upset about Biden’s debate performance or are rightfully concerned the nation is in peril under his addled leadership. It’s that they feel lied to. A week ago, The New York Times was regurgitating the White House spin that “Misleading Videos Are Trailing Biden As He Battles Age Doubts,” as if the voluminous number of videos of Biden stumbling over his words and wandering off on stage were all “cheap fakes” per the White House’s talking points.

Following the debate, at least three of their op-ed columnists called for Biden to withdraw, and the paper has run an official editorial telling him to bow out. The dwindling number of people who still trust legacy media outlets such as the Times will no doubt insist their willingness to call out Joe’s problems is a sign of their integrity. However, this would only be a sign of integrity if they called for him to drop out after it became obvious Biden was senile, and that happened years ago. The about-face occurred only after they started to panic that he couldn’t win reelection.

Besides, the fact that it’s nearly impossible to recall another time when any big elitist media institution diverged with a Democratic White House on such a big issue is the exception that proves the rule. Biden may yet withdraw, but if he doesn’t, he need not worry whether the media will line up behind him.

Following Biden’s debate catastrophe, on MSNBC Jen Psaki asked California Gov. Gavin Newsom, “What should people out there who have social media platforms and like President Biden be pushing out there that was damaging and terrible from Donald Trump tonight?”

To be clear on what’s happening in this exchange, a woman who went straight from being the current president’s press secretary to joining a major news network with no real objection from her peers is asking Biden’s official debate surrogate how to send out literal talking points to damage the incumbent Democrat’s opponent on live television.

It’s not just that the debate made it impossible to deny Biden’s cognitive decline, it’s that the media’s desperation to defend him is also laying bare the total moral and ethical collapse of journalism.

It’s tempting for Trump supporters to revel in schadenfreude over this mess because Trump, who’s been leading in the polls since September, just saw his odds of winning jump even more, and the downballot effects for Dems of a lopsided victory could be devastating. But the reality is that there’s no good outcome for the country.

Democrats have spent years insisting Trump and the Republican Party were a threat to Democracy because of Jan. 6, 2021. But that threat may pale in comparison to having a non compos mentis man in the White House with two separate wars raging involving nuclear powers. If distrust between voters and our leadership class was already a problem, it’s about to get a lot worse.

Even if Dems do try to hot-swap the candidate in the middle of the election, Kamala Harris has the lowest approval ratings of any vice president in modern history. And the process for substituting any other candidate would likely cause so much strife within the Democratic coalition and legal turmoil that it would swallow the election. You think 2020 was divisive because people questioned the results? Just imagine heading into this election with active litigation about whether it’s against state law to take Biden’s name off the ballot in crucial swing states a couple of months before the election.

It didn’t have to be this way. All Democrat leaders and the media had to do was not be so craven in their desire to cling to power. In fact, had they been honest about how obvious Biden’s condition was a year ago, they might have a candidate who is winning the election.

Instead, they sowed distrust with citizens, empowered enemies who are taking advantage of an enfeebled leader, and brought the country to the brink of domestic turmoil. And still, they have no intention of accepting responsibility for what they’ve done.

They’re not actually upset to have just discovered the man in charge of our nuclear weapons is senile — they’re upset they can’t continue to hide this fact from you any longer.

Mark Hemingway is the Book Editor at The Federalist, and was formerly a senior writer at The Weekly Standard. Follow him on Twitter at @heminator