Either President Joe Biden is a glutton for punishment or he thinks, like infamous wastes of space Prince Harry and Meghan, that if he just gets in front of the cameras and “tells his story” enough times, the whole country will suddenly like him.
Of course, when Biden almost exclusively agrees to softball interviews with sympathetic journalists who won’t call him out on even the most easily debunked lies, his thought process makes a little bit more sense.
Take, for instance, the president’s appearance Monday on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
Host Meyers began with a joke about Biden’s age being “classified” before asking him a more serious question about the issue.
“All jokes aside, according to recent polling, this is a real concern for American voters,” he said to the 81-year-old president. “How do you address that concern going forward as you come up to the 2024 election?”
Biden answered, “Number one, you got to take a look at the other guy. He’s about as old as I am, but he can’t even remember his wife’s name.”
The audience responded with uproarious laughter, and Meyers let the comment slide as the interview moved forward.
There’s just one problem with Biden’s comment, however.
Should the mainstream media be tougher on Biden?
That never happened.
The president was referring to an incident Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference when — according to many on social media — former President Donald Trump called his wife Melania “Mercedes.”
During his speech at the event, the Republican presidential candidate said, “My wife, our great first lady … people love her. People love her. Oh, look at that, wow! Mercedes, that’s pretty good!”
The left-wing BrooklynDad Defiant account on X shared the clip and said, “You won’t see this reported on Fox News or in the NY Times because they’re all busy calling President Biden old. But here’s trump calling his wife, Melania, ‘Mercedes.’ This should be a MUCH bigger story.”
🚨🚨You won’t see this reported on Fox News or in the NY Times because they’re all busy calling President Biden old.
But here’s trump calling his wife, Melania, “Mercedes.”
This should be a MUCH bigger story. pic.twitter.com/iNYGhKokm2
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) February 25, 2024
Anti-Trump political commentator Rick Wilson likewise shared the video, saying, “If Biden called Jill Biden ‘Janice’ we’d see 50 articles and sixteen NYT op-eds about his age.”
If Biden called Jill Biden “Janice” we’d see 50 articles and sixteen NYT op-eds about his age.
Donald Trump calls wife Melania ‘Mercedes’ during live CPAC speech https://t.co/ldaauhshGN
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) February 24, 2024
However, as Newsweek pointed out, the former president wasn’t referring to Melania Trump in the clip.
Instead, his words were directed at Mercedes Schlapp, Trump’s former White House director of strategic communications and host of CPAC.
Schlapp herself shared a headline from the British publication The Independent and called it “Fake news at its finest.”
Fake News at its finest 😂 pic.twitter.com/41D0o10Fds
— Mercedes Schlapp (@mercedesschlapp) February 25, 2024
Even left-wing former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann grudgingly came to the former president’s defense.
“Trump spews out astonishing evidence of his dementia, brain trauma, and possible substance abuse on an hourly basis,” Olbermann said in response to Wilson’s post. “There is NO reason to add to this list easily disproven nonsense. He did NOT call his wife ‘Mercedes’ at CPAC.
“He’s unmistakably referring to Mercedes Schlapp.”
Trump spews out astonishing evidence of his dementia, brain trauma, and possible substance abuse on an hourly basis. There is NO reason to add to this list easily disproven nonsense. He did NOT call his wife “Mercedes” at CPAC.
He’s unmistakably referring to Mercedes Schlapp🤦🏼♂️ https://t.co/oqWF7DgJkF
— Keith Olbermann⌚️ (@KeithOlbermann) February 25, 2024
The real question now is, if even some leftists publicly acknowledge this story is bogus, why did Biden repeat it on national television without any blowback whatsoever?
It’s bad enough for activists on social media to spread such an easily disprovable story, but for the president to spread that kind of nonsense on national television?
Why is Biden not getting called out by the media?
We all know the answer, of course.
The establishment media can’t get over their severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, especially with the presidential election only months away, so anything that makes Biden look better than Trump will get amplified, while the evidence against Biden will be downplayed.
The president owes his rival an apology, but that’s about as likely as a snowstorm in Cuba.
Granted, though that’s not likely, considering the severe decline in goodwill for the nation’s oldest president over the last year, this comment might not end up having the effect Biden intended.
