On Saturday I pointed out that a full day had gone by since Salman Rushdie was stabbed, and Old Joe Biden, the putative president of the United States, hadn’t said Word One about the attack, leaving National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to issue a vacuous and perfunctory statement. Eventually, however, Old Joe’s ghostwriter was compelled to swing into action, and it would have been better if he or she or xe had kept silent.
“Jill and I were shocked and saddened,” wrote (nobody was letting Joe anywhere near the cameras to mangle another statement) Biden’s mouthpiece, “to learn of the vicious attack on Salman Rushdie yesterday in New York. We, together with all Americans and people around the world, are praying for his health and recovery. I am grateful to the first responders and the brave individuals who jumped into action to render aid to Rushdie and subdue the attacker.” So far so good, but this is the Biden administration, so no one in the entire universe will be surprised that the statement went into the dumpster from there.
The alleged president continued: “Salman Rushdie—with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced—stands for essential, universal ideals.” It’s hard to read this claptrap without immediately thinking of all the times the Biden administration has trafficked in intimidation in order to try to silence those whom it hates. The entire Jan. 6 “insurrection” hysteria, especially the long imprisonment and mistreatment of people who entered the Capitol on that day after police opened the doors, is one interminable exercise in the intimidation and attempted silencing of those who have the temerity to support Donald Trump. The FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid is shaping up to be another attempt to intimidate Trump and those who support him, and blunt the force of their push to regain power in 2022 and 2024.
Merrick Garland’s rogue, corrupt, politicized FBI most notoriously employed intimidation tactics against parents protesting at school board meetings against the imposition of the woke agenda in public schools. But now Old Joe would have us believe that he thinks Salman Rushdie is a hero for refusing to be intimidated and silenced. And the statement just gets worse from there.
Biden’s ghostwriter goes on: “Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear. These are the building blocks of any free and open society. And today, we reaffirm our commitment to those deeply American values in solidarity with Rushdie and all those who stand for freedom of expression.”
Wait a minute. The Biden administration is committed to “the ability to share ideas without fear”? Really? So the Biden administration is ready to defend the right of Americans to express skepticism about the integrity of the 2020 election or the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines without fearing deplatforming and professional harm as a result? Does the Biden administration stand ready, in the wake of the stabbing of Salman Rushdie, to affirm that Americans have the right to dissent, and dissent vociferously and passionately, from administration policies without fear of some form of reprisal from a politicized, weaponized IRS, a politicized, weaponized FBI, or both?
Remember, this is the administration that was caught red-handed trying to establish a “Disinformation Governance Board” that was set to counter alleged “disinformation” that was “entrenched in domestic politics.” This is the administration that was ready to use federal agencies against Elon Musk when it looked as if he was going to take over Twitter, all because of his plans to restore the freedom of speech on that platform.
The Biden administration has had an ugly authoritarian edge ever since it came to power, and now Old Joe is posturing over the stabbing of Salman Rushdie as a champion of the freedom of speech? As he memorably said to Donald Trump during one of their debates, “Why don’t you shut up, man?” Just when it seems as if this administration can’t possibly get more self-righteous, cynical, self-serving, hypocritical, unctuous, and deceptive, it keeps hitting new lows.
If Old Joe were remotely consistent and honest, he would have said this about the Rushdie stabbing: “Sorry this fellow was attacked, but in order to make an omelet, you’ve got to break some eggs, man. Above all, we must not let this attack get in the way of the new nuclear deal we are trying to conclude with Iran in order to complete our repudiation of Trump’s foreign policy legacy.” But honesty and Old Joe have clearly never met.
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