Appearing on MSNBC’s Jose Diaz-Balart Reports Tuesday morning, Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman scoffed at reports that the embattled Biden White House was going to “reset” with a new communications strategy. The political journalist delivered a hard dose of truth as he explained that no PR push could change the “brutal reality” for the flailing administration.
“And, I mean, Jake, our NBC News colleagues report the Biden administration is looking at a new messaging and communications strategy. What would that be? And is that possibly effective?,” wondered anchor Jose Diaz-Balart. Sherman sarcastically mocked the effort: “Well, when all else fails, you blame your communications effort, right? You blame the people who are charged at delivering the message instead of the actual reality.”
He pointed out the political reality Democrats were facing:
And the reality is, it’s very difficult to govern and it’s very difficult to govern aggressively and fulfill aggressive and lofty campaign promises, with a 50/50 Senate and a narrow margin in the House. You could communicate until you’re blue in the face about that reality, but that’s just the way it is. And you could reset and you could do whatever you’d like to try to explain that away.
Moments later, Sherman concluded: “I don’t know how you reset the idea that the BBB has stalled and voting rights is going nowhere....So I would take any thought about a reset with a heap of salt because you can’t reset and reframe and repackage a brutal reality for this White House.”
Sherman has been throwing cold water on the Biden administration a lot lately. Last week, while again talking to Diaz-Balart about the doomed push by Democrats in Congress to enact a federal takeover of elections, Sherman called it a “show” that’s “not going anywhere,” with Biden having “absolutely no chance of winning.”
The rest of the media should greet any new White House media strategy with the same amount of harsh skepticism as Sherman.
Here is a transcript of the January 18 exchange:
10:21 AM ET
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JOSE DIAZ-BALART: And, I mean, Jake, our NBC News colleagues report the Biden administration is looking at a new messaging and communications strategy. What would that be? And is that possibly effective? I mean, how do you deal with the reality that people are feeling in this country? I mean, we have the COVID crisis, really creating havoc in our country. You know, inflation, et cetera. How do you reset?
JAKE SHERMAN [PUNCHBOWL NEWS CO-FOUNDER]: Well, when all else fails, you blame your communications effort, right? You blame the people who are charged at delivering the message instead of the actual reality. And the reality is, it’s very difficult to govern and it’s very difficult to govern aggressively and fulfill aggressive and lofty campaign promises, with a 50/50 Senate and a narrow margin in the House. You could communicate until you’re blue in the face about that reality, but that’s just the way it is. And you could reset and you could do whatever you’d like to try to explain that away.
And by the way, this administration has a lot of successes, right? I mean, they have – they passed an infrastructure bill, they passed a COVID relief bill. Whether that plays or not is up to – I don’t know the answer to that.
But the reset here, I don’t know how you reset the idea that the BBB has stalled and voting rights is going nowhere. I mean, you could reset that all you want and that’s still the reality on the ground and here in the Capitol and at the White House. So I would take any thought about a reset with a heap of salt because you can’t reset and reframe and repackage a brutal reality for this White House.
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