If you are a Democrat and lose The Hill and NBC in a single day, it just might be time to take a hint. While President Joe Biden's inclination to cling to power does not seem to ebb, the drumbeat from the media for him to let go seems to be getting louder. Earlier today, PJ Media's Rick Moran asked when Democrats would dump Joe Biden as their nominee in 2024, noting some of the bad press.
But the chorus is just getting louder. Yesterday, The Hill took great pains to point out Biden's horrible approval rating. "President Biden’s year-end approval rating is worse than any other modern-day president seeking reelection’s has been at this point in the campaign cycle, a new survey found," began the report.
The outlet even pointedly conceded that President Trump garnered more approval at the same point. Trump's pre-COVID approval rating in late 2019 stood at 45%. That bested Barack Obama at the end of 2011. All other presidents since Jimmy Carter were above 50% approval at the end of the year before seeking reelection. Yes, even the man regarded by many as the most disastrous president in modern history, before Biden, scored 54% in late 1979.
And while The Hill points out that voters' confidence in the economy is edging up slightly, concerns about foreign policy and national security remain. Then, as if on cue, NBC published a new report on how poorly the administration handled the appearance of a Chinese spy balloon in early 2023, reinforcing those concerns.
NBC reported that Biden knew about the Chinese spy balloon before it entered continental U.S. airspace. In fact, according to the report, current and former administration officials say that the White House hoped to conceal the balloon's presence.
“Before it was spotted publicly, there was the intention to study it and let it pass over and not ever tell anyone about it,” said a former senior U.S. official briefed on the balloon incident.
However, before the public spotted it on February 1, 2023, General Glen VanHerck, the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, told General Mark Milley about it. Their call on January 27, 2023, prompted the deployment of military jets from Alaska to learn more about the giant balloon. Biden was briefed on January 31 while the balloon hovered over Canada.
When the president learned of the balloon, NBC reported that photos from the military already showed antennas capable of listening to cellphones and collecting other signal intelligence on board. The intelligence already determined the craft was a Chinese spy balloon remotely steered from inside China for a time. Yet, early reports for the public would not confirm the origin, calling it a "suspected Chinese spy balloon."
The NBC report expects you to abandon all common sense and believe Chinese diplomats and Xi Jinping knew nothing about that balloon. And it minimizes the national security threat from the signals intelligence gathered over some of our most sensitive military bases. However, it is not shy about saying there are no new protocols or technology for detecting another balloon before it enters U.S. airspace.
It also pointedly notes that the damage done to U.S.-China relations after the U.S. shot down the balloon is not repaired. It reportedly took months to engineer the recent meeting between Xi and Biden in San Francisco. Biden did not discuss the balloon. Additionally, Xi allegedly told Biden in no uncertain terms that China would reunify with Taiwan, opening the possibility of a third global conflict in the Pacific.
Such negative stories about Biden from the corporate press in an election year would be unprecedented under normal circumstances. However, an addled and failing 81-year-old man who may not make it four months, let alone four years, is an extraordinary circumstance. And when you add the mounting evidence of corruption among the Biden clan preparing to burst into public view, it is only a matter of time before someone will need to have a pointed conversation with whichever Biden is keeping Joe in the race.
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