Here’s What the Foreign Press Is Saying About Presidentish Biden

I love the Daily Mail’s tabloid sensibility, which when covering the absurdity that is American politics in the 21st century, is really the only proper sensibility.

To point: Joe Biden repeatedly mixes up Syria and Libya while discussing ways of working with Russia in latest press conference blunder ahead of meeting with Putin.

The 78-year-old gaffe machine spoke of working with Vladimir Putin to provide economic assistance to the people of Libya, prompting some confused glances from the press pack at the G7 summit in Cornwall, England.

‘I’m hopeful that we can find an accommodation where we can save the lives of people in — for example, in — in Libya,’ the president said, mentioning the north African country for the third time instead of Syria, which is in the Middle East.

The White House later brushed the confusion off.

Naturally, the White House brushed it off. That’s their job. But the American press didn’t press Jen Psaki on it, either, even though that’s exactly their job.

The UK’s Sun might not always be Britain’s most serious newspaper, but like the New York Post, they know how to have fun with serious topics.

Their latest headline reads: President greets Turkey’s Erdogan with bizarre fist bump in awkward moment ahead of meeting.

And for the cringeworthy details:

Extending out a clenched fist, Erdogan appeared confused by Biden’s gesture, first leading down towards the US president’s hand as if he was about to kiss it, before meeting it with his own fist and standing up.

The pair then shared a laugh, and Erdogan stroked Biden’s right arm.

Millions more Americans need to see this, but good luck with that.

Nobody, not even the Brits, are more obsessed with the British royal family than Americans are — sad to say. So you think there might be a little more interest shown by the domestic press in this next item: Joe Biden’s royal protocol breach: US President broke rules by revealing Queen asked him about Putin and Xi Jinping and by not taking off his sunglasses when he met monarch.

Nothing more than a minor breach of protocol? I’m no expert, but that’s my impression, yes.

If this had been Donald Trump — I hate leaning on that trope, but today I must — the American press would have whipped it up into the biggest Anglo-American donnybrook since the War of 1812.

The Times (of London) is a very serious newspaper, so I did a double-take when I saw it publish a headline far more salacious than anything you’ll usually see there: President Putin suggests that Joe Biden was being macho by calling him a killer.

It’s the eve of Biden’s summit with Putin, and Biden is calling him a killer.

It’s true. Putin is a killer and a kleptocrat, too.

But maybe that’s not the kind of thing one says out loud right before a big summit.

For what it’s worth, I read the news for a living and this is the first and only time I’ve come across this particular instance of Biden’s chronic verbal diarrhea.

But, really, it’s small beer compared to what’s really going on between the U.S. and Russia.

For that, we have to go to the very latest example of the American media’s obsequiousness. The AP just ran this bit of presidential fluffery: Biden, unlike his recent White House predecessors, has maintained Putin skepticism.

Sigh.

Biden might have maintained the appearance of Putin skepticism, but in reality, he has greatly worsened our position vis-à-vis Moscow.

Stories like the AP’s listen to the words but don’t dig for any facts.

Appearances are everything, apparently.

Let’s look at the facts.

Between a defense budget that doesn’t keep up with inflation, weak or non-existent responses to Russian hacking, giving up on getting Germany to pay even 2% of GDP for defense, canceling an America pipeline while allowing a Russian pipeline to go ahead (and pushing Germany closer to Russia), it’s impossible to say what’s the worst thing Biden has done to show he’s a big believer in Vlad the Bad.

But you can be sure that if you want to find any actual Big Media skepticism towards Democrats, you’ll have to look for news reports from countries where there aren’t any.

Remember all those “Biden called an early lid” stories from last year, that you had to come to sites like PJ Media to find?

Well, here’s the Twitter version of one of those, courtesy of POLITICO.

Biden is now more than 90 mins late to his own press conference as it approaches 8:30 pm in Brussels https://t.co/AxCqIRaonZ

— Anita Kumar (@anitakumar01) June 14, 2021

At times like this, the press has to report something negative… because they got their feelings hurt like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction: I’m not going to be IGNORED!

Maybe the American press wouldn’t feel so butt-hurt about Biden neglecting them if they hadn’t spent the entire campaign ignoring it as best they could.