BYRON YORK: Who enabled Biden? A case study.
On June 4, the Wall Street Journal published a story headlined, “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping”…[The] Journal described a January White House meeting with congressional leaders on Ukraine policy in which Biden “spoke so softly at times that some participants struggled to hear him, according to five people familiar with the meeting. He read from notes to make obvious points, paused for extended periods and sometimes closed his eyes for so long that some in the room wondered whether he had tuned out.” The next month, meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), the Wall Street Journal said, “Johnson worried that the president’s memory had slipped about the details of his own policy.”
White House and Democratic pushback was furious. Biden is as sharp as ever, Democrats said. The article was a hit piece based on Republicans who were playing partisan politics. Among those pushing back was Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who had talked with the Wall Street Journal for the story but was not quoted in the published piece.
“Surprise, surprise,” Murray posted on X after the story came out. “Everyone attacking POTUS is a Republican with an agenda. I made clear to the Wall Street Journal regarding the January meeting on Ukraine that the president was absolutely engaged and ran that meeting in a way that brought everyone together. I’m not quoted — I wonder why.”
Murray’s answer to her own question was obvious — she was accusing the Wall Street Journal of publishing a partisan hit piece suggesting Biden is not up to the job when she, Murray, had told reporters Biden is as good as ever. Later, the Wall Street Journal would describe it this way: “Murray told the Journal in April that she hadn’t seen a change in Biden’s acuity during her years of working with him. ‘He engages in a very personal way, asking questions,’ Murray said. ‘He is listening and absorbing.’”
That was Murray then. Now, after the disastrous June 27 debate exposed Biden’s infirmities for the world to see, Murray is singing a different tune.
As is the DNC-MSM. In a Twitter thread, Drew Holden rounds up over a dozen examples of the media performing Orwell-worthy pivots.