As far as the press are concerned, Joe Biden has been the least accessible president in memory. There’s a reason for that. It’s been clear for a long time that the 82-year-old Biden is not mentally and physically up to the job. After it became politically safe for Democratic-supporting media outlets to report his infirmitiesafter his disastrous June 27, 2024, debate performance against President-elect Donald Trumpwe learned that Biden’s staff went to great lengths to keep him away from the press. For whatever reason, many reporters happily steered clear of questioning the president’s condition. An outgoing president often conducts final interviews with media outlets. Biden chose to do just one, with USA Today’s Susan Page. Three embarrassing blundersor were they deceptions, or self-deceptions? show why Biden’s aides have kept him away from interviews for so long.
First was Biden’s insistence that inflation was raging at 9% when he took office, when, in fact, inflation was quite low at 1. 4% in January 2021. Biden first made the claim last May, while campaigning against Trump, telling CNN, “No president has had the run we’ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation. It was 9% when I came to office. ” Even though many media fact-checkers pointed out the error, Biden repeated it a week later. Now, in the USA Today interview, Biden has done it again, though in a somewhat garbled form. When asked whether he thought he paid too little attention early on to inflation with the American Rescue Plan, Biden answered, “I knew how much inflation was affecting their lives, but none of this had passed when inflation was at 9%. ” It is unclear what he meant. Inflation, low when he took office, did not hit its peak of 9. 1% until July 2022, when Biden had been in office a year and a half. He then went on to brag that his policies did not result in a recession, stating, “The fact is that we had a soft landing, no recession, and the interest rate was 9% when we came into office. ”
The second blunder concerned Biden’s son, Hunter, who has pleaded guilty to tax charges, among other things. In the USA Today interview, Biden defended his decision to pardon his son, even after promising he would never do such a thing. Biden claimed that he changed his mind because he learned Hunter had paid all his taxes, even if late. However, the truth is that Hunter Biden did not pay his back taxes himself; a wealthy lawyer and Biden supporter paid them.
The third blunder was Biden’s belief that he would have won reelection had he remained on the presidential ballot last year. In response to a question about whether he believed he could have won, Biden said, “It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes, based on the polling. ” Election observers quickly disagreed, highlighting that Biden was behind Trump during the election. It is unlikely Biden would have defeated Trump had he stayed in the race, but he appears to hold firmly to his beliefs regardless.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/3281647/joe-biden-enduring-deceptions/
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