CNSNews.com’s final anti-Biden crusade before being shut down last month involved doing a lot of whining about President Biden’s trip to Ireland. Susan Jones sneered in an April 5 article headlined “WH: Biden ‘Is Going to Focus on the American People’ — But He’s Going to UK and Ireland Next Week”:
The Biden White House had no comment Tuesday on former President Donald Trump’s arraignment.
President Joe Biden, however, flashed a big, wide smile when reporters shouted questions about Trump’s indictment as they were ushered out of the room where Biden was meeting with his science and technology advisers.
At the White House press briefing on Tuesday, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said, “It’s an ongoing case, so we’re just not going to comment on the case specifically itself.
“Look, the President is going to focus on the American people, like he does every day,” Jean-Pierre said.
“He is not — this is not something that is a focus for him. He is going to focus on things like making sure that the — that we lower — continue to lower prices for the American people.”
At least seven times, in response to other questions, Jean-Pierre repeated that Biden’s focus “is on the American people.”
So it came as a bit of a surprise on Wednesday morning, when Jean-Pierre announced that “President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will travel to the UK (Northern Ireland) and the Republic of Ireland from April 11-14.”
It’s unclear how this underscores Biden’s focus on the American people.
Jones ramped up the nastiness (with added nitpicking) in an April 7 article headlined “With All That’s Going On in the World, Why Is Biden Going to Ireland?”:
“How does a Biden trip to Ireland help counter China or end the war in Ukraine?” a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday:
“So, let me just say a couple of things,” Jean-Pierre responded:
“The President is certainly looking forward to taking this trip to Northern Ireland and also the UK” (she meant Northern Ireland, which is in the UK, and the Republic of Ireland).
Jones pushed her anti-Biden partisanship again over the trip in an April 11 article:
With all that’s going on in this chaotic world, President Joe Biden is taking time to visit Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, and then the Republic of Ireland. The trip, which mixes business with pleasure, begins today.
As of Monday, the White House could not or would not say which members of his family will accompany the elderly president on a sentimental visit to his ancestral home.
Jones added in an update: “Biden, asked if his family will accompany him on trip, said, “Just two of my family members who hadn’t been there before.” No names given.” All of these articles, mind you, were presented as “news” despite Jones’ blatantly partisan attacks.
Once actully on the trip, Jones’ partisan sniping continued in an April 13 article:
The American president waxed sentimental about his Irish roots on Wednesday at a community gathering in Dundalk, Ireland, saying, “coming here feels like coming home.”
“Well, it feels like home,” Biden said at the beginning of his speech.
“I said last time I was here, in a sense I know why my ancestors and many of your relatives left during the famine. And — but you know, when you’re here, you wonder why anyone would ever want to leave. No, I mean it, so it’s good to be back.”
Biden noted that he brought along his sister Valerie and his son Hunter on a trip that is more personal than policy-dominated: “Stand up, guys,” he said. “I’m proud of you.”
There was nitpicking, of course; Patrick Goodenough spent an April 14 article bashing Biden for getting the name of a rugby team wrong:
The “All Blacks” is the nickname for New Zealand’s national rugby union team, one of the world’s best.
The “Black and Tans” was the nickname for British police recruits, often notoriously brutal, who were sent to Ireland to bolster the local force during the guerilla war against British rule just over a century ago.
President Biden evidently got the two mixed up during his nostalgia tour of the Republic of Ireland this week.
[…]In Dublin on Thursday, National Security Council senior director for Europe Amanda Sloat was asked by a reporter whether Biden was aware that he had misspoken when he referred to the “Black and Tans.”
“I think for everyone in Ireland who is a rugby fan, it was incredibly clear that the President was talking about the All Blacks, and Ireland’s defeat of the New Zealand team in 2016,” she said.
“Did he realize that right after he said it, do you know?” Sloat was asked.
“You know, I think it was – it was clear what the president was referring to,” she said. “It was certainly clear to his cousin sitting next to him who had played in that match.”
Addressing Irish lawmakers in Dublin on Thursday, Biden again mentioned Irish rugby victories against New Zealand, but this time referred to the “All Blacks.”
In that same address, Biden said he would rather have his children play rugby than American football.
That last comment, by the way, drew its own article, headlined “Biden Disparages American Football in Address to Irish Parliament.” Its author was anonymous but was mostly likely written by editor Terry Jeffrey, lover of all things football.
Such blatant editorializing and partisan targeting presented as “news” is a big reason why CNS’ readership was in decline, which likely played a role in the MRC shutting it down six days later.