But first, a progress report… The Senate is pushing past far-right objections to aiding Ukraine. But next steps are uncertain https://t.co/hYVSpyiVbK — The Associated Press (@AP) February 10, 2024 … Senators conducted a late-night vote Friday, advancing to next steps as they spin through objections from a core group of Republicans. More closely aligned with …
Saturday Morning Open Thread: We’re Ridin’ With Biden!Post + Comments (264)
More Angry Biden, Please https://t.co/L2BIR8sAan via @TPM
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 9, 2024
Interesting argument. President Obama was careful to *never* be seen as angry, but President Biden is an affable old white guy who maybe should push his advantage as ‘America’s Righteous Grandad’ more often:
… Aside from discussions of the President’s cognitive faculties, the main focus — actually the two were melded together — was commentary about his anger. This seemed to be a universal response from the DC press corps, that the whole impromptu press conference was a mess because the President displayed clear and clearly genuine anger.
Is that wrong? As George Constanza might have said.
This goes to the heart of the etiquette of official Washington and who plays by those rules and who doesn’t. Anger is a natural human emotion. It’s a reaction to being attacked, being treated unfairly. Whatever you think of Biden, he clearly had a lot to react to. Special Counsel Robert Hur was charged with investigating whether Biden had violated the law by retaining classified documents. He decided, quite likely because he had found no basis for bringing charges, to take a series of gratuitous and transparently political swipes at Biden’s mental faculties, going so far as to claim that Biden was unable to remember when his son Beau died. Everyone knows that this was the central injury and core event of the latter part of Biden’s life. I experienced one profoundly traumatic loss in my life and four decades on if anyone seems to disrespect or make light of it, even unintentionally, it puts me in a mood to fight. It would be unnatural not to be angry. It’s a gratuitous and deeply personal swipe.
It’s probably not lost on you that Donald Trump is basically permanently angry. And not just angry in response to particular events but the kind of perpetual and often peristaltic anger that in day to day life most people find threatening or at least off-putting. But we virtually never hear anything about the purported damage from expressions of anger when it’s Donald Trump. That’s not bias. It’s simply that it’s assumed. So it just doesn’t come up. It’s no longer policed. That’s just what Donald Trump does. But there’s an additional factor that people don’t notice. Being responsive to this kind of press policing signals a basic weakness, a perpetual hedging, a practice of being controlled and responsive to the press chorus rather than indifferent to it. Trump’s able to work outside this framework of policing because he simply ignores it and because of that reporters decide it doesn’t apply to him. This isn’t just Biden. It’s not even just Trump. Democrats for a host of reasons tend to be far more responsive to this kind of policing. People want to see expressions of agency and power from political leaders. Trump’s ability to set the terms for how the press reacts and interprets his actions is itself an expression of power.
All of which is to say that it wasn’t just okay that Biden showed some anger. It was good. And he should do more of it. Both because people expect people to have normal and appropriate human responses and grow latent suspicions when they don’t see it but also because it’s Biden showing some energy and direction. They should put him in front of reporters and the cameras more, not less. If you are responding to the tut-tutting and line-drawing of the prestige media you’re losing. It’s as simple as that. You’re always either reacting or being reacted to. The latter is always better.
Yeah, we're all pretty fucking tired of the press' shit already. https://t.co/2utg7W8CY6
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) February 9, 2024
The fact of the matter is, Joe Biden is much better at his job than the DC press corps is at theirs.
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) February 9, 2024
President Biden's full, unedited response to the special counsel report that exonerated him, but has some desperate MAGA shills calling for the 25th Amendment.
POTUS destroys their pathetic narrative with no script or teleprompter. pic.twitter.com/566F3TSFOf
— Brad Bo ???? (@BradBeauregardJ) February 9, 2024
The truth about Joe Biden is much more mundane, for better and worse, than many care to admit. https://t.co/opMgxOhahL pic.twitter.com/BV8PtdyNuf
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) February 9, 2024