Stephanopoulos brought the fire:
No American president had ever faced a criminal indictment for retaining and concealing classified documents. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment or a state indictment for trying to overturn an election, or been named an unindicted co-conspirator in two other states for the same crime. No American president has faced hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for business fraud, defamation, and sexual abuse.
Until now, no American presidential race had been more defined by what’s happening in courtrooms than by what’s happening on the campaign trail. The scale of the abnormality is so staggering, that it can actually become numbing. It’s all too easy to fall into reflexive habits, to treat this as a normal campaign, where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power. But, that is not what’s happening this election year. Those bedrock tenants of democracy are being tested in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens.
Indeed it is. And unfortunately, so far, the media is only sometimes meeting the moment. Steph meets it here but far too often the savvy DC press corps retreats into its cynical corners. Too many reporters obviously can’t stand Biden — he’s old and boring. And as a result they are not willing to be clear about the stakes or, perhaps even more importantly, fairly tell Biden’s story, which should have people emerging more decisively from their post-pandemic funk. It’s going to be hand to hand combat and journalists need to start telling the truth about just how fucked up this really is.