White House correspondents are not a very bright lot. These days, they don't have to be.
Back in the day, White House reporters worked for a living. They hustled for stories. They had to read between the lines of statements from the president to understand what was happening. They tapped genuine sources in the White House for background.
Not today. Since the dawn of the internet age, White House "reporters" take dictation like a secretary used to. They simply regurgitate the day's talking points. Any background they need for a story is helpfully supplied by a White House PR flack.
This explains the extraordinarily "absurd" question from CNN's MJ Lee.
"Mr. President, would you go so far as to say that Alexei Navalny’s blood is on the hands of House Republicans right now?" Lee asked.
Huh?
Just an absurd question - and it suggests (without any kind of evidence) that sending more money to Ukraine would stop Putin killing political opponents.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 19, 2024
Even adamant Ukraine supporters have to be shaking their heads at this one. https://t.co/61oOux6F5i
What a moron.
Biden may have disagreed with Lee's characterization, but he took the opening Lee gave him to trash Republicans anyway.
"Look, the way they’re walking away from the threat of Russia, the way they’re walking away from NATO, the way they’re walking away from meeting our obligations — it’s just stunning. I mean, for awhile — I’ve never seen anything like this," Biden added.
Like Democrats walking away from Vietnam? Or Democrats walking away from Iraq? I guess Biden's memory really is getting worse.
CNN's MJ Lee says at the top of the next hour that her question about the GOP having “blood...on” their “hands” was merely “whether [Biden] would draw that connection between Congress’s inaction in Navalny’s death.”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 19, 2024
After replaying the exchange and parroting WH talking points… pic.twitter.com/QoF0GjEens
Just remarkably stupid — something the Washington Free Beacon's Joe Gabriel Simonson says is becoming more common among White House reporters.
There are unfortunately structural incentives to not only look like a hack, but a stupid one. The stupider, the better. https://t.co/1FWh1ZAKc2
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) February 19, 2024
In the immortal words of Forest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does."
CNN isn't the only member of the media that's placing blame on Republicans for Navalny's death. MSNBC host Alex Witt and Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., suggested over the weekend that former President Trump's recent statements about NATO encouraged Navalny's murder.
"I think we have to ask ourselves, why did Navalny all of a sudden die at this point in time?" Lieu said Saturday. "Well, we had former President Donald Trump essentially say that Russia should attack European countries."
Witt fed into Lieu's conspiracy, saying "The day before he died, he looked to be in perfectly good health… The next day [he] drops dead."
Glenn Greenwald called the question "demented."
CNN demands Biden go even further than he's willing to go in order to somehow blame Navalny's death on House Republicans.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 19, 2022
The very premise is demented. But CNN is now more partisan in favor of Dems not only than MSNBC (which criticizes him on Israel) but even Biden himself: https://t.co/ysFS4gC4Mf
Greenwald also criticized another partisan meme making the rounds on X and social media sites.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 when Obama was President.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 19, 2024
It invaded Ukraine in 2022 and now Navalny died in prison: both during Biden's presidency.
If you want to claim "weakness" provokes Russia, what does this say about Dems?https://t.co/MhQm5epaZF
Lee's idiotic question was asked to give Biden an opportunity to hit a home run and score a grand slam against Republicans. Instead, it only made Lee look like a bush-league bench warmer and a stupid one at that.
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