Thursday, 26 December 2024

Next Event In Biden's Dementia Decathlon: Solo Press Conference Thursday Could Seal His Fate

ZeroHedge
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As panicked Democrats continue wringing their hands over the general election perils associated with President Biden's accelerating cognitive decline, Big Media has thus far spent the week largely focused on comments made in closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, and the steady drip of Democratic House reps stepping out to publicly urge Biden to quit race. 

Little attention has been paid to Biden's next opportunity to confirm everyone's worst judgements about his mental state. In a event that has the potential to inflict even more damage than his primetime, sit-down interview with George Stephanopolous last week, Biden will conduct a rare solo press conference on Thursday -- facing a press corps that's been re-programmed, switching from Biden-protection to Biden-scrutiny. 

Though Team Biden unleashed a major, multi-faceted Monday offensive aimed at removing doubts about whether the 81-year-old will stay in the race, his campaign is still teetering as it receives a steady stream of shoves from both inside and outside government. For example, on Tuesday alone: 

  • New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill became the eighth House Democrat to urge Biden to abandon his re-election campaign, saying, "I am asking that he declare that he won’t run for reelection and will help lead us through a process toward a new nominee.” 
  • Responding to a question thrown at him on a New York City street, ABC's Stephanopolous said "I don't think he can serve four more years." He later said he was wrong for "respond[ing] to a passerby." 
  • Appearing on CNN, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet said, "Trump is on track...to win this election, and maybe win it by a landslide and take with him the Senate and the House." 

    • Depending on the extent to which the White House can rig it in the president's favor, Thursday's press conference could be a game-changer that takes the Democrats' anti-Biden rebellion to a new level of intensity -- one that, for example, sees the first Democratic senators come forward to publicly oppose Biden's continuation in the race. 

    We've already witnessed many major leftist media figures -- from Stephanopoulos to Jake Tapper to Joe Scarborough -- suddenly willing to speak frankly about Biden's manifest mental decline. With Biden on a precipice, Thursday's press conference could be a contest among reporters striving to cement their place in history by being the one to give Biden the decisive shove over the cliff. 

    The big question: To what extent will the White House be able to choreograph the whole affair? Belying their claims of being duped about Biden's withering abilities, the White House press corps has hitherto aided and abetted sham press conferences in which Biden has been caught holding cheat sheets that not only tell him which reporters to call on, but even give him the full text of the question each reporter will ask.  

    Captured by a photographer at a press conference, this cheat sheet gave Biden the full text of a reporter's question in advance (AFP via Getty Images and New York Post)

    ZeroHedge and a handful of other outlets tried their best to bring this scandalous deception to public notice, but  mainstream media colluded in concealing it. Now, however, it's a new ball game, and the White House can't expect such tactics to go unreported this time around.

    Indeed, the Biden campaign just came under fire over the weekend when urban-talk-radio hosts at two stations said the campaign gave them a pre-selected list of questions when Biden appeared on their shows with hopes of bolstering his sagging support among black Americans. One host was fired for going along with the scheme. 

    Amid widespread demands for Biden to demonstrate his ability to manage unscripted conversations, the White House communications staff is between a rock and a hard place. Biden's grown accustomed to stage-managed press conferences, and is likely to perform badly if he's now forced to attempt a real one.

    On the other hand, if the White House pre-selects reporters who've submitted questions in advance, it could be a scandal -- the one that should have already erupted when we and others publicized the practice back in April 2023. Team Biden must also think twice about hosting a press conference that's seen as as rushed or allowing too few questions. 

    There's another facet that will elevate the difficulty level: time of day. While a time hasn't yet been published, the White House last week said it will take place in the afternoon -- and only after an earlier-afternoon meeting associated with this week's NATO summit in Washington. According to White House sources, Biden is at his best between 10am and 4pm. "Outside of that time range...Biden is more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued," reported Axios. It sounds like the press conference could take place on the cusp of his danger zone. 

    On top of all that, Biden's embattled communication team has already demonstrated some jarring incompetence in regard to this critical press conference. Last week, Bloomberg reporter Justin Sink asked press secretary Karine Jean Pierre if it would be "a real, big-boy press conference," apparently referring to a lengthy, robust solo session as opposed to shorter ones featuring both Biden and some other official. 

    Showing an unfathomable lack of appreciation for how it would be perceived, both Jean Pierre and John Kirby this week used the inside-joke "big boy press conference" label as they referred to Thursday's critical event. Lacking context, Americans naturally took this as the failing president's handlers describing his activities much as they would a toddler's -- as Jill Biden did after Joe's historically-catastrophic debate with Trump: 

    So stand by for what will likely be the most-watched press conference of Biden's term in office...a prospect that surely has his caretakers filled with dread...

    Bonus Biden press-conference flashback: 


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