As you might have heard Joe Biden, true to form, made a rather stupid gaffe on the campaign trail.
Now it’s not unusual for an old man born in a different era, even if they are not named Joe Biden, to say something impolitic in public but for the leading presidential candidate of a national party to so do, and do so on video meaning it can be easily disseminated, that type of story is one that would be normally considered “newsworthy”, particularly in an era of “trigger warnings” and in fairness there has been some coverage.
Time magazine gave it a whole five paragraphs the strongest being:
Biden has been criticized for his tendency to say awkward, sometimes surprising, things. When his future boss, Barack Obama, was running for president, Biden once remarked that Obama was “clean” and “articulate,” a remark that raised eyebrows.
Ooh Burn!
The Washington Post’s piece was a bit longer. Here are the key bits:
She [Biden’s deputy campaign manager] also fired back at the Trump campaign for having promoted the video.
“As we approach the two year anniversary of Trump calling neo-Nazis and Klansmen ‘very fine people,’ Donald Trump is desperate to change the subject from his atrocious record of using racism to divide this country,” Bedingfield said, referencing Trump’s comments following the deadly confrontation in Charlottesville in 2017 between self-proclaimed white nationalists and protesters.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, another Democratic White House hopeful, also sought to draw attention to Biden’s comments — as well as his campaign’s response.
“To quickly dismiss @JoeBiden’s words as a mere ‘slip of the tongue’ is as concerning as what he said,” de Blasio said on Twitter. “We need to have a real conversation about the racism and sexism behind ‘electability.’ ”
So they hit Biden with a line from one of the weakest candidates in the Democrat field and not only allow Biden’s spokes person to spin his gaffe away but one again spread a false meme about Trump.
Talking Points Memo included this tweet from the today show:
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
“Raised Eyebrows” wow that’s tough. How about the article itself:
While the remarks were seemingly a slip of the tongue, Biden’s been criticized for his record on race in recent weeks, particularly his past views on busing as a means of desegregation and his remarks about working with segregationist lawmakers in the past. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) called out Biden during the first round of Democratic presidential debates, in an exchange that went viral and boosted Harris’ polling numbers significantly.
and USA today via Yahoo:
Speaking about his education plan, which would triple federal investment in lower-income school districts, Biden said the country should challenge students and increase the number of advanced placement programs in those schools.
“We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids,” Biden said, before adding: “Wealthy kids. Black kids. Asian kids. No, I really mean it. But think how we think about it.”
“They can do anything anybody else can do, given a shot,” Biden added.
It’s as he never said a thing.
finally there is the daily beast, also via yahoo which not only included a quote from the Trump campaign:
President Trump’s re-election campaign was quick to seize on the slip-up and share a video of the remarks. “Yikes… have fun mitigating that one,” Andrew Clark, rapid response director for the Trump campaign, wrote on Twitter.
but actually noticed the irony involved
Biden, who has dubbed himself a “gaffe machine” for his well-documented history with verbal blunders and embarrassing slip-ups, has yet to comment on his remarks, which came just hours after he said President Trump “encourages white supremacists.”
Mind you this is the roughest coverage that anyone in the MSM has given Biden on this story. It’s as if they had bought themselves a RonCo Gaffe-scratcher guaranteed to remove Gaffe’s or your money back!
All of this coverage is designed to make this a one day story that doesn’t even make it below the fold which objectively it would be and should stay as long as nobody of consequence in the Democrat field touches it.
In a time when news media was interested in reporting news that would be perfectly fine, but re-read that coverage again and ask yourself this question.
If the speaker at that Iowa event was Donald Trump or even Mitt Romney instead of Joe Biden how would that story have played in those stories.
They would have been full of statement from prominent Democrats deploying them and calling him to step down, there would be journalists asking every republican in congress to comment on the statements. Panels on the cable news networks would be discussing it daily and till election day it would be a theme of the coverage.
And if you don’t believe me do a search of the phrase “Binders of women”
Now it only remains to be seen if President Trump decides to have fun with it the next time the Democrat / Media falsely quote him on Chancellorsville.
