How far gone is Joe Biden, mentally? I don’t know, but his aides do. And the frenzy they display whenever it appears that Biden might have to talk without a script tells us that they think he is incompetent.
The latest instance occurred yesterday when Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did a joint appearance at the White House. They chatted for a few minutes and then Johnson took a couple of questions from British reporters. White House aides were so concerned that someone might ask Biden about the Southern border or another unacceptable topic that they interrupted the Prime Minister in mid-sentence and loudly hustled the reporters out of the room. This is the Telegraph’s account:
President Joe Biden refused to take questions from American reporters before his aides chivvied them away from a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday.
Members of the press were said to be “startled” by the “aggressiveness” of the White House communications team during the Oval Office talks.
Mr Johnson was still speaking on the Good Friday Agreement, reaffirming a commitment to the accords with Northern Ireland, when the president’s media team began herding reporters out of the room.
“On that point, Joe, we are completely at one. And I think nobody wants to see anything that interrupts or un-balances the Belfast Good Friday,” Mr Johnson was saying before aides began shouting over him.
They shut down the only query from a US reporter about the current migrant crisis on the US-Mexico border, preventing Mr Biden’s response from being audible.
This video is from the Hill. If you skip to near the end you can see the conference being broken up by White House staffers:
The Telegraph’s video is better; it goes longer and gives you a reporters-eye perspective. It is not readily downloadable, but you can watch it at the link above.
Reporters complained to Jen Psaki, who professed to know nothing about the incident. But really, no comment is necessary. The White House thinks it is better to interrupt the British Prime Minister in mid-answer and suffer the humiliation of herding reporters out of the room, rather than allow Joe Biden to answer a question. Enough said.
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