During the Trump years, many people including yours truly, questioned the president’s intelligence, competence and mental stability. I would suggest that we were simply observing the reality we were confronted with. After all we had a president who went around bragging that he was a genius because his uncle taught at MIT and suggesting that we might want to look into using household disinfectant to “clean the lungs.” There were numerous incredibly such strange moments. But I don’t recall any Democratic Senator doing something like this:
It went on and on like this as if something truly disturbing had happened. It didn’t.
After yet another back-and-forth on the matter, Blinken finally told the senator: “I really don’t know what you are referring to.”
There’s good reason for that: It didn’t happen.
The episode is worth unpacking because it shows, in miniature, how misinformation infects the Republican Party, rapidly spreads through partisan media and contaminates elected GOP leaders — who amplify and defend the falsehood, even when it’s shown to be wrong. This is how lies are born.
(In this case, it wasn’t even a useful lie. By making it his lead-off attack, Risch distracted attention from the Biden administration’s botched pullout from Afghanistan, a serious matter. Instead, Risch used the forum to portray Biden as senile, based on rubbish.)
The story begins with the White House’s Monday press schedule, which announced that Biden would receive a wildfire briefing in Boise. The press coverage was listed as “out-of-town pool spray at the top.” In English, this means that a group of the traveling White House press corps is admitted to the event at the beginning and then brought out after journalists get some video and audio. It’s a routine practice presidents have used for decades. And that’s exactly what happened Monday. According to the pool report, the group was escorted in at 12:08 p.m. for the start of the briefing and “escorted out at roughly 12:35” — a relatively long spray.
That would have been the end of the matter, except that somebody in the research department at the RNC, watching the White House’s livestream, decided that something nefarious had happened. “White House feed cuts out as Biden starts to ask a question,” the RNC tweeted.
Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, crediting the RNC for the scoop, published an article under the headline, “White House livestream cuts Biden mid-sentence as he goes off script.”
“An official White House livestream of President Biden’s remarks was abruptly cut off mid-sentence on Monday,” it began, linking Monday’s “incident” to White House officials’ “fear he’ll veer wildly off-message.”
All that was left was for Risch to trumpet the fabrication — and then to demand to know why Blinken was “unaware this is actually happening.”
Had Risch been duped, or was he deliberately parroting disinformation? I explained to Risch’s aides what had actually happened and asked whether there would be a clarification. There would not be. “Who cut off the president? Please advise,” repeated Risch spokeswoman Suzanne Wrasse.
So Risch knows the facts but perpetuates the fiction. If only somebody could “press the button” and cut off the GOP lie machine before it destroys us all.
And Senator Risch should be ashamed of himself. He’s despicable.
CNN’s Daniel Dale:
At length, Sen. Jim Risch absurdly said someone at the White House yesterday hit a “button” to stop Biden from talking.
No. There was a planned “pool spray,” in which press/cam is allowed in for brief remarks at a meeting’s start; it ended as Biden began questioning officials.
Prompted by a Republican National Committee tweet, right-wing media covered this like the White House was nervously censoring Biden as he went off script. In fact, as you’ve probably seen, it’s entirely normal for the press to be ushered out/the cam to be shut off mid-meeting.
Also, like, these are the words Biden said before the feed ended: “Can I ask you a question? One of the things that I’ve been working on, with some others, is…” It wasn’t like he started telling some crazy story. (Anyway this is all ridiculous.)
Originally tweeted by Daniel Dale (@ddale8) on September 14, 2021.
You’ve seen this happen many times when some functionary starts screaming at the top of her lungs “all right move out, get out, move along!!!!”
Everything is so stupid right now.