The Media Research Center did a lot of complaining that people said nice things when Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race — and it never really stopped. Tim Graham registered another complaint that someone likened Biden to George Washington:
Once Joe Biden knuckled under to tremendous pressure to drop out of the race, Biden’s advisers went out to proclaim he was like…George Washington? That was former Newsweek editor, “historian” and Biden speechwriter Jon Meacham on Monday’s Morning Joe. Joe Scarborough read from his New York Times op-ed and put the gushy words on screen for his hardcore-Democrat audience.
[…]There is no more dreadfully overworked partisan life-story talking point than Biden tragically losing his family members. But then, Washington wasn’t enough! Meacham found Biden parallels to Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 (he won in a landslide, but there was a Great Depression) and Abraham Lincoln in 1861:
Curtis Houck served up a bitter compilation piece:
On Sunday afternoon after President Biden’s handlers posted for him on social media that he won’t run for reelection, CBS blew ABC and NBC out of the water with nearly four hours of airtime (roughly 3:55) fawning over Biden as someone embedded in “the American story” and set to live “in very rarefied air” of U.S. history and decrying even policy criticisms of likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, as sexist.
Below is Notable Quotables-style compilation of the worst moments, aside from this segment blogged by our Alex Christy about BET anchor Ed Gordon deploying the race card and then this doozy flagged by our Jorge Bonilla of John Dickerson comparing Biden to George Washington.
Houck’s defitition of “worst” means that people didn’t spew hate at Biden like he does. Meanwhile, Brad Wilmouth melted down over yet another Washington comparison:
On Monday morning, NBC News personalities were reading from the same playbook in making lame comparisons between President Joe Biden and George Washington as NBC presidential historian Michael Beschloss appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and former contributor Jonathan Alter appeared on Morning News NOW.
Less than two hours after former contributor Jon Meacham appeared on Morning Joe with host Joe Scarborough discussing Meacham’s column comparing Biden to Washington choosing not to run for a third term in 1796, Beschloss appeared on the show with his own gushing over the Democrat [sic] President.
[…]Instead of calling out Biden and other Democrats for hiding Biden for the past three years and trying to slip him back into another term in spite of his cognitive problems, Beschloss continued his praising of the President instead:
After Biden gave a speech formally announcing his decision to drop out, Jorge Bonilla led the hate parade: “Regime Media coverage of President Joe Biden’s speech was, as expected, equal parts in vitafuneral, campaign spin, and part Cleanup on Aisle 46 in terms of obfuscating the real underlying reasons why Biden withdrew from the presidential race.” And he too whined about a Washington comparison:
Biden is no Washington, Jack. Washington didn’t look at polling before delivering his farewell address in 1796, nor was his fundraising held hostage until he withdrew. That such ridiculous comparisons can be uttered on national television without the speaker being laughed out of town makes a compelling case for mandatory civics education in all our schools.
But anyway.
Post-speech, a tearful Van Jones mourned for Joe Biden, and made a false J6 equivalency.
[…]If you turned your TV on and expected serious, sober coverage of this speech that is, on its face, historic (albeit for different reasons than advertised), you were in for major disappointment, Sadly, the worst we can say is that this is exactly what we expected from the Regime Media.
Of course, Bonilla wants to believe that his highly partisan hate-spewing is “serious, sober coverage.”
Houck returned for another hateful rant:
ABC’s Good Morning America felt warm and fuzzy inside on Thursday in reacting to President Biden’s Wednesday night Oval Office address about his decision to end his bid for reelection, calling the “historic address” a “love letter to the country he has devoted his life to” and one “for the history books…that not only will preserve his legacy, but now define it.”
Even the teases were syrupy. Co-host Robin Roberts boasted of Biden’s “historic address to the nation, passing the torch” to cap “more than half a century in politics” and then co-host and former Clinton flack George Stephanopoulos huffed that Donald Trump spent Wednesday night “repeatedly mispronounicing the Vice President’s name” at a rally.
Chief White House correspondent and lead Biden apple polisher Mary Bruce was in top form, calling it “truly…an address for the history books” with Biden “explaining to the American people…his remarkable decision to pass that torch” (which he did not, in fact, do).
“It is a move that not only will preserve his legacy, but now define it…Overnight, in the Oval Office, President Biden explaining directly to the American people his historic decision to bow out of the race, describing it as a patriotic necessity to preserve the country he loves so dearly,” she excitedly proclaimed.
Only later after giving Biden long soundbites did Bruce concede he “did make no mention, though, of how he got to this moment”, but wants to “make clear he still has a lot of work he wants to get done”.
Houck — a chief Trump apple-polisher — whined that it was pointed out that “Trump repeatedly mispronounc[ed] Harris’s name,” which he tried to dismiss as “mild criticism” as opposed to the deliberate disrespect it actually is.
A few hours later, Houck cranked out another anti-Biden rant:
On Thursday, NBC’s Today comforted the comfortable in President Biden as they gushed over his “historic” speech aimed at explaining why he dropped out of the 2024 race (which, in actuality, he failed to do) and concluded with an ice cream social for administration officials and reporters alike.
A few minutes after co-host Craig Melvin teased “[r]eaction pouring into President Biden’s historic address to the nation”, the network did nothing to include an array of reactions aside from the First Family and former President Trump.
[…]Wednesday’s network special report on the speech was arguably even more out of control. Guthrie was in awe of Biden “framing…in the starkest imaginable terms” that “democracy is on the line” while Welker had this doocy that claimed “this was a speech for the history books” and which clips and words will be “played and replayed throughout time”
She also sung Biden’s praises for the “stunning” call to “talk about personal ambition and to acknowledge that he clearly wrestled with this decision”.
In turn, she insisted, this was “the first draft of how his legacy is remembered” as he invoked “past presidents who he reveres, from Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt”:
[…]Chief Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson also celebrated Biden’s speech being about “this idea of character” and possessing “fortitude to lead the country forward”. She also laughably claimed “it was not a campaign speech” since “[h]e clearly had his eye on the history books”.
Mary Clare Waldron was on hate-watching duty for “The View”:
Following President Joe Biden’s Oval Office speech on Wednesday night, Democrats have come forth with their sentiments, and overwhelming praises. The ladies of ABC’s The View were not apart from the movement, taking time on Thursday to glorify Biden’s long political career, not forgetting to leave time for inappropriate comments on Trump, and critiquing the whole Republican Party.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a co-host and apparent conservative representative for the show, began a discussion criticizing the Republican Party and Trump for spreading a false narrative.
Waldron then tried to defend Republican concern-trolling over Harris taking over Biden’s place in the election process, laughably calling it “scruples”:
In reality, many of the scruples Republicans have had over the 14 million lost primary votes are legitimate. The primary ticket contained one name, Joe Biden. Of course it is true that Harris was understood to be his VP pick once again, yet the main point is that on their own would Democrats have voted for the same candidate. A valid question to pose. Yet, in the last week it has become clear that questioning the vice president in any way is unacceptable.
Farah Griffin’s diatribe against her own party should be heavily criticized, as she spends more time complaining about her self-proclaimed party than defending it, leading one to question the so-called diversity in opinion which The View claims.
The MRC just hates that Farah Griffin has a mind of her own and is not a servile Trump-bot like Waldron apparently is.
Wichael Wnek whined:
The Weekend host Michael Steele filled in for Joy Reid on Thursday night’s episode of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, giving an obnoxious tribute to President Joe Biden. During the segment, he invited MSNBC analyst Jonathan Alter to demonstrate the apparently stark contrast between Biden’s “decency” and the “malicious” and “nasty” Republican Party.
Steele began by playing a clip of Biden’s Wednesday night Oval Office speech, wistfully sighing as he fawned on the “emotional, yet graceful address to the nation…where he once again showed the country the kind of man he really is.”
[…]Of course, Alter wholeheartedly agreed, praising the “ode to decency” and doubling down on the media’s ridiculous comparison of Biden to George Washington and the ancient Roman Cincinnatus. He further painted an arguably over-patriotic portrait of the president for “mak[ing] a decision that was in the spirit of the founder of our country,” arguing that it “puts him in very good stead historically…[and] when it counted, he made the American tradition, the American decision, in the American tradition.”
Graham returned to rage:
Jeff Zucker may be gone, but CNN still can uncork editorials that sound like speeches by Democrat politicians on the floor of the House or Senate. On his Sunday show, CNN host Fareed Zakaria began by offering deep appreciation of President Biden, followed by a warning that Donald Trump should not return to the presidency.
The joke is “Did Fareed plagiarize a Democrat [sic] politician for this speech?”
[…]Biden strengthened NATO mainly by letting Russia invade Ukraine again, which did not happen on Trump’s watch. Ukraine is on fire and Hamas attacked Israel, and we’re handing out laurels to Biden? He didn’t even touch on the Afghanistan withdrawal fiasco. Once again, it’s like hailing the new Jimmy Carter.
Then came the final flagrant flourish about “decency and dignity,” as Biden accused his opponents of being “Jim Crow 2.0,” or more flagrant segregationists than the Democrat [sic] segregationists that he palled around with in the Senate in the 1970s.
Graham didn’t prove anything Biden said to be wrong.
Rich Noyes put a cap on all this hate with a compilation post of “the Top 20 media salutes to Joe Biden” that was mostly about whining that, yes, non-right-wing media didn’t hate Biden like he so fervently does:
Before Joe Biden’s stumbling and incoherent debate performance led panicked journalists to join Democrats in bullying the presumptive Democratic nominee out of the 2024 campaign, the media airwaves were full of praise for Biden’s “enormously consequential” and “extraordinarily successful” presidency.
The “successes” that so impressed journalists, of course, were the *multiple* trillion-dollar-plus legislative packages passed by a friendly Democratic Congress during Biden’s first two years — “accomplishments” that have stoked the awful inflation that’s led most Americans to say the President’s economic policies have failed.
[…]In many ways, the worst media scandal of the past four years wasn’t journalists turning a blind eye to Biden’s physical and mental decline. It was their failure to critically examine the consequences of the hugely expensive new programs the Biden administration rammed through, which will be on the government’s balance sheet long after the President retires.
Noyes isn’t going to talk about how he and his fellow MRCers turned a blind eye to Trump’s offenses, desperately spinning away his criminality and pushing and feeding his bogus election fraud conspiracy theories.