You would be forgiven if you expected anything different.
Sure, ABC News talking head George Stephanopoulos has been a long-time Clinton pal, having worked on Bill’s presidential campaign and been cited as managing so-called “Bimbo Eruptions” to decrease their visibility in the press or cast aspersions on the women who have alleged Bill victimized them. Sure, he went through the hyper-fast revolving door between federal government offices and pop “news” media. But, perhaps you hoped that the simple prospect of Stephanopoulos being under the spotlight following Joe Biden’s abysmal performance in his June 27 “debate” with Donald Trump might inspire him to cast off his leftist lethargy, ask tough questions, and follow-up with probing questions should Biden obfuscate or lie.
Yes, you might be forgiven if you held onto hope.
And, yes, you possibly were not just disappointed, but stunned by George’s pathetic exchange with the obviously troubled president, because not only did he essentially repeat the same question over and over, as if expecting Biden to respond with a modicum of honesty about his own liabilities and weakness, Stephanopoulos allowed Biden to repeatedly lie, without citing or questioning the lies.
That second facet of the “interview” is most important, but let’s take the nearly 30-minute petting session from front to back.
By the way, this is one of the few interviews I watched on 1.5 speed. If you missed it, you might want to up the tempo, as well.
First, we have the single, solitary focus of George’s questions – and one does not have enough fingers to count the number of times he asked it, rephrased it, pressed it, and seemed to welcome the same one-note answer, each time.
Strangely, in the first two minutes of the exchange, Stephanopoulos got a valuable hint about the answer to his coming stream of the same question, because Biden indicates that he doesn't remember whether he watched his own performance in that debate.
STEPHANOPOULOS: “Did you ever watch the debate afterwards?”
— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) July 5, 2024
BIDEN: “I don’t think I did. No.” pic.twitter.com/cIJUSCNB20
One would assume that Biden would know whether he watched it, or he did not.
And that might indicate a problem to the interviewer, but Stephanopoulos acts as if he hasn’t heard what Biden said. He never asks Joe what he means by, “I don’t think I did.” He never asks, “Are you telling me you’re not certain of your memory?” George marches on, unfazed and unperturbed, repeatedly asking Biden to tell him if he is okay.
Of course, asking Biden if his memory is alright will not get the questioner anywhere. This is something most people who’ve been close to folks with memory problems know – very well. If Stephanopoulos had wanted to see if Biden has memory problems, they should have split the interview into two segments, asked questions for fifteen minutes in the first, then waited a half hour, and asked Biden to tell George what they just discussed. That is one of the standard operating procedures for doctors to try to diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease.
Instead, he repeatedly asks the egomaniac Biden if he is mentally impaired and/or not mentally quick enough for a campaign or to take office for four more utterly wonderful years, and George appears oblivious to the fact that most people with memory problems… deny the problem.
But more objectionable than Stephanopoulos’s insufferable one-note question concert is the fact that he never challenges Biden on any of his lies.
Let’s look at some examples.
First, at 4:06 into the chat, Biden claims, “I also was the guy who put together a peace plan for the Middle East that may be coming to fruition.”
Biden claims in ABC News interview that he is creating a peace plan in the Middle East and that the economy is growing as his response to push back on reports regarding his cognitive decline.
— Mona Salama (@ByMonaSalama) July 6, 2024
"I also was the guy who put together a peace plan for the Middle East that may be… pic.twitter.com/fRIjd2PQwn
Curiously, the peace plan to which he evidently refers is the “plan” that he two weeks ago claimed was produced by the Israeli government, a lie that was exposed by Israel, especially when Benjamin Netanyahu’s own government rejected it. In other words, Biden already has claimed it was from Israel; Israel rejected it; Biden now claims it was his proposal (contradicting his earlier claim) and that it may come to fruition.
Related: June Unemployment Rate Highest Since Nov. 2021, Past Job Gains Revised Downward
Then there is this Biden claim in our sampler: his whopper about employment.
“Today, just announced, 200,000 new jobs.”
That’s not the entire labor report picture, and having worked for a President, and, one might think, possessing the ability to read, George likely knows that Biden is not offering the whole of it.
As Craig Bannister reports for MRCTV, the June unemployment rate was the highest since November of 2021:
“June’s unemployment rate rose to the highest monthly level in 31 months, hitting 4.1%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday.
June’s seasonally-adjusted 4.1% unemployment rate wasn’t just up from May’s 4.0% level, it was also the highest monthly unemployment rate since November of 2021 (4.1%).”
And Bannister adds:
“Meanwhile, BLS revised downward the number of jobs created in April and May by a combined 110,000.
As a result, the previously-reported job growth in May was lowered by 54,000, down from a robust 272,000 to 218,000. Despite the downward revision for May, June’s job growth of 206,000 still slowed from the previous month.”
And to put a fine point on it, he observes:
“The number of unemployed people rose to 6,8 million, up from 6.6 million in May. Both the unemployment rate and number of unemployed in June are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.6% and the number of unemployed people was 6.0 million.”
Any pushback from Stephanopoulos when Biden attempts to congratulate himself by hiding the rest of the employment picture? No.
The exchange marches on, treading the same “repeat the question” pattern, offering nothing of substance. So, yes, folks can be forgiven if they had hoped for more and were disappointed. But, perhaps now they have learned. Don’t expect much real journalism from pop media.
And don’t expect the truth from Joe Biden.
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KJP has a wide range of excuses for Biden's mental state. https://t.co/FducOb2uKh
— MRCTV (@mrctv) July 7, 2024