ABC’s Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl appeared on ABC’s two morning shows, Good Morning America and The View Wednesday to plug the updated, paperback edition of his book, “Front Row at the Trump Show.”
On both programs, the former ABC White House correspondent spoke glowingly about the Biden administration, comparing it favorably to the Trump administration. Some of Karl’s defenses for the Biden administration were just plain pathetic.
Take a look at how he managed to spin Biden hiding from the White House press into a positive thing for the country:
“You know, I think that the lack of press conferences is because he doesn't want to be dominating the news right now,” Karl praised, touting that selfless Biden, “wants to get back to a new sense of normal where the chaos and crisis and drama in the West Wing of the White House isn't dominating the world's attention.”
As a journalist, you would think he would want more access to the president, not less.
The lame excuses continued, as Karl acted as Biden’s publicist on just about every answer to The View hosts. He downplayed the border crisis saying that child separation was “significantly different” than it was under President Trump and a result of Biden being more “humane:”
It's a mess. It's been a mess for a long time. It wasn't just Donald Trump's policies that created a crisis on the border. I remember covering it in the early days of the Obama administration. We had something very similar unfolding. One thing that's really important to point out, though, is the significant difference here between what we're seeing now with children at the border and what we saw under the Trump administration. What we saw happening under the Trump administration is children being separated from their guardians, from their parents, from the adults they came over with. Now we're seeing a surge of unaccompanied minors, children coming up on their own, they’re not being separated by the U.S. Government. It's a mess. Biden signaled very clearly he was going to treat people coming over the border illegally more humanely. The downside of that very understandable policy is that it encourages more people to say they’re going to come up because they’re going to be treated more humanely.
Karl also praised Biden for saying families could have small get-togethers for Fourth of July as “managing expectations:”
“I think Biden hopes we'll be able to do more than just that, but he wants to set the bar low, set expectations low so they can be exceeded,” he claimed.
All of this flattery for Biden made Karl’s trash talk about Trump, the subject of his book, all the more stark. Joy Behar asked Karl to comment on the former president panning the press for his “poor coverage.” As the pair chuckled, Behar mocked, “Poor guy!”
Karl then told an “alarming” story he “learned about” from last March, where President Trump allegedly wanted CNN’s Kaitlan Collins thrown out of a press briefing, but it never happened. The co-hosts were enthralled by the gossipy story. “Just unbelievable the attack on the press and our Constitution by the chief executive,” Sunny Hostin gushed.
The reporter rehashed another “incredible” Trump-trashing tale on both Good Morning America and The View that he “learned about” of Trump wanting to send a Navy hospital ship for COVID patients to Los Angeles instead of Washington state, because he didn’t like Governor Jay Inslee. Karl didn’t reveal who his sources were for either of these stories.
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Read the relevant transcript portion below:
The View
3/17/2021
MEGHAN MCCAIN: Jon, you've been around a million years. I say that with respect. You’ve been a Washington journalist for a long time. What is different about the Biden administration right now? I know conservatives are very hard on the fact that President Biden hasn't done a press conference yet. Obviously it's a huge tone shift from the Trump administration. What do you see as the biggest difference covering this white house versus the last one?
JONATHAN KARL: Well It's all about turning the temperature way the heck down, Meghan. Joe Biden doesn't feel like he needs to be out there dominating the news every day. He's not out there picking fights with Republicans. He's not picking fights with the press. You know, I think that the lack of press conferences is because he doesn't want to be dominating the news right now. He wants to get back to a new sense of normal where the chaos and crisis and drama in the West Wing of the White House isn't dominating the world's attention.
JOY BEHAR: Okay, that's a good answer. I like that answer...
