On Monday morning, the White House correspondents on ABC, CBS, and NBC all eagerly played the role of unofficial Biden press aides by touting his Sunday night address to the nation as a plea to use the attempted assassination of Donald Trump as “an urgent plea...to cool down the political temperatures” and a task for Americans “to unite” by “restor[ing] civility”.
None of them mentioned Biden’s harsh record smearing Republicans as racists and national security threats Instead, CBS and NBC left it to their colleagues with ABC not mentioning Biden’s record at all. And, in another case of bias by omission, none pointed out that, Biden had another mental gaffe when he said differences should be resolved at the “battle box”.
ABC’s Good Morning America even played the clip of Biden talking about “the battle box”, but didn’t acknowledge it as a slip-up. Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos boasted that Biden “condemned political violence, saying we cannot allow to it be normalized.”
Chief White House correspondent and lead Biden apple polisher Mary Bruce was ebullient, gushing that Biden made “an urgent plea for Americans to cool down the political temperatures in this country” because what happened Saturday was “simply not who we are, and is challenging Americans to use this moment to unite us rather than divide us.”
Bruce conceded “we are in the middle of a very divisive campaign”, but instead of pivoting to how Biden would have a role in said decline in civility, she insisted Biden’s “well aware of” this being a tense election season.
“[H]e says this is a time of testing and what comes next, whether the rhetoric can be dialed down, so much of that will depend on these two candidates. Are they able to articulate and outline their very different visions for the future of this country without ratcheting things up,” she added before concluding the Biden campaign will resume it’s full-throated campaign (i.e. attacks on Trump) by Monday night and “putting ending political violence front and center in this race.”
NBC’s Today trotted out chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander to be Biden’s walking press release. Alexander led into a non-“battle box” clip of Biden by praising Biden for “delivering a very clear message, an effort to lower the temperature and again condemning political violence.”
After the clip, he fluffed Biden’s pillow with tiresome biographical propaganda (click “expand”):
You know, political violence was the motivating factor for Joe Biden to run in 2020 after Charlottesville then the January 6 attack. That’s been a defining theme of his presidency. Among the challenges going forward right now, how sharply he can make the case against Donald Trump that he is a threat to democracy, while still casting himself as a calming force.
The President, we should note, spoke with Mr. Trump late Saturday. White House aides tells us that call was short but good and respectful and we have just learned the First Lady Jill Biden spoke with Melania Trump by phone yesterday afternoon. Immediately after the shooting, the Biden campaign notably took down its TV ads, postponed a scheduled trip to Texas for today, but we are told with the RNC convention ramping up tonight, Hoda, they’ll resume some of that political activity and the President will hit the road again for events beginning tomorrow.
Alexander left the calling out of Biden to Trump campaign correspondent Garrett Haake, who noted Biden said on Friday that “Trump is a threat to this nation” and correspondent Kate Snow, who both-sided the heated words from Democrats and the GOP.
Over on CBS Mornings, senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang hyped Biden using the Oval Office as the choice of venue as “[a] testament to how much weight he wants to put behind that message of rejecting political violence” and “urged Americans to restore civility and to recommit to resolving differences peacefully, calling the upcoming presidential election a, ‘time of testing for the United States.’”
Jiang followed suit from Bruce and Alexander by wrapping with how Biden will resume being political on Monday night
Biden officials — campaign officials tell CBS News that tonight after President Biden does a primetime interview — and of course, that first night of the RNC, they will resume drawing a contrast with Republicans and Trump, while being mindful about rhetoric.
Co-host Tony Dokoupil did the job of pointing out some of Biden’s divisive statements later in the show, including one of Biden saying Trump’s “willing to sacrifice our democracy” was proof “measure and calm haven’t exactly defined American politics lately”. In a man-on-the-street segment, he even gave airtime to Republicans accusing the media of being responsible for our divisions.
To see the relevant transcripts from July 15, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
