First of all, that chyron, people.
"WH TAKES REPORTER QUESTIONS AMID BIDEN CRISES" — WHAT crises? Good lord, Fox. Take a nap, already. Have some milk.
Fox is determined to create anger and hysteria in its viewers, even in the midst of a presidency that is passing legislation, appointing judges, and getting COVID vaccines to anyone who wants them.
It's not only Fox that misses the drama of Orange Twatstika's regime, though. More "mainstream" reporters try to do the exact same thing, as we see here from CBS's Nancy Cordes.
"Whose decision was it to break with tradition and not hold a formal press conference after the trilateral summit today? Was that something requested by the Canadians or the Mexicans, and why?" she asked Jen Psaki at the daily briefing.
As usual, Psaki was ready.
"Well, I would say first that I don't think it's as scandalous as that in terms of the backstory, just to preface. There hasn't been a North American leaders' summit since 2016," she replied, using my favorite language: sarcasm. "So when we're talking about precedent, just to be clear, we're talking about prior to that."
Pres. Joe Biden is doing the very important work of restoring precedent to the office of the presidency, especially diplomatically. Trump never even held talks with the leaders of Mexico or Canada. HE is the one who broke precedent by alienating our border allies, breaching every possible norm and blowing up every diplomatic bridge he could with our neighbors. This CBS reporter is implying that the lack of an official press conference after the meeting forebodes some awful diplomatic gloom?
Psaki continued, letting Cordes know exactly how petty her alleged issue was in comparison to (1) how many times he has spoken to the press over the last month, and (2) how much Biden is in the midst of accomplishing.
"I would note that in the last three weeks, the president has hosted two press conferences, three if you count the one he did after he announced the signing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, where he took a number of questions. He's also, including today, he's taking questions from reporters a total of at least ten times this month," she reminded Cordes.
Then just to punctuate how silly this notion of injecting the lack of a press conference with anything more insidious or infused with dark foreboding, Psaki spelled it out simply.
"There was a change in schedule, as things move around, as things sometimes do. As you know, he signed three important pieces of legislation today, important for law enforcement, that had broad bipartisan support, that moved everything later in the day, and schedules change and adjust, but you saw him take questions just a few minutes ago."
Dude's busy. Schedules change. It ain't World War III about to happen. At least, not with Mexico and Canada.
