Is it a battle of the briefers? New York Times media reporter Michael Grynbaum reported on Page One that John Kirby, "who is white," might "upstage a Black woman" as the face of the Biden white House. It's "turned their double act into a third-rail subject."
Grynbaum reflected the conventional wisdom, gently: she's not good at this. "He evinces a clarity and comfort at the lectern that can sometimes elude Ms. Jean-Pierre, 49, a more rote public speaker with less experience tussling with an adversarial press." The pro-Biden press is "adversarial"?
Even the text box had a tilt: "The administration relies on a longtime Washington hand to spread its message."
Jean-Pierre has resented Kirby's presence from the beginning. Grynbaum writes, at a farewell party for Jen Psaki, Biden told KJP don't worry, “you’ll have an admiral looking over your shoulder.” Like she needs help. "The president’s tone suggested he wanted to be encouraging, the people said, but the comment landed with a thud."
After that, we discuss Axios.com reporting about internal White House turmoil over the border crisis, telling of one meeting where Biden "exploded in fury" when aides didn't have the immigration data points he wanted. In addition, a former Biden administration senior official dissed Vice President Kamala Harris to Axios: "She's been at best ineffective, and at worst sporadically engaged and not seeing it was her responsibility. It's an opportunity for her, and she didn't fill the breach."
We wind down with how the Left is playing around with Valentine's Day. MRCTV's Tierin-Rose Mandelburg reported Abortion Fund Ohio cut straight to the point when its group tweeted: “Girls don't want flowers for Valentine's Day. They want flowers AND abortion on demand,” and later added “birth control & chocolate & plan b, oh my!”
We Testify, a group dedicated to giving women the opportunity to talk about their amazing abortion, made Valentine’s Day cards to post on its social media accounts. One was a poem that read, “roses are red violets are blue abortions are cool I’ve lost count of mine, I’ve had quite a few.”
NPR.org promoted "5 facts about queer animals for Valentine's Day." To celebrate that there is "currently a gay anteater couple" at the National Zoo in DC, "NPR spoke with wildlife ecologist Christine Wilkinson of the "Queer is Natural" TikTok series for Valentine's Day. Here are some of her favorite facts about queer animals." Did you know some deer are non-binary??
The Wall Street Journal front page carried the sour spin that people are turning inward on Valentine's Day, which can still please Big Business through "self-gifting." The story began "This Valentine’s Day, more people are saying I love you – to themselves."
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
