For Saturday’s Good Morning America, ABC White House correspondent Mary Bruce went into full hype mode as she tried to tie President Joe Biden’s Pointe du Hoc speech with Ronald Reagan’s 40 years prior. She also gleefully noted “the contrasts” between Biden and Donald Trump while playing up the former apologizing for the GOP in France during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Speaking over side-by-side images of Biden and Reagan, Bruce hyped “Biden speaking at the same site where 40 years ago President Reagan delivered one of his most iconic speeches.”
After a clip of Reagan, Bruce added, “While Biden didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, the contrasts were clear. The president pitting his view of America’s role as a global leader against Trump’s isolationist America First stance.”
Bruce then played a clip of Biden’s speech where he asked, “Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against Putin’s aggression here in Europe today?”
Moving onto Biden’s meeting with Zelensky, Bruce recalled, “Earlier Biden meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky apologizing for the delay in approving new military aid and blaming Republicans.”
That was followed by another clip of Biden telling Zelensky that “Some of our very conservative members who were holding it up, but we got it done.”
For the media, the war in Ukraine is simple: Democrats: good, Republicans: bad. For the Ukrainians themselves, it is more nuanced. Ukraine recently watched Russia build up its forces a mere kilometer or two across the border for a Kharkiv offensive, but couldn’t do anything about it until Russian forces actually crossed the border due to Team Biden’s insane rules of engagement policy. They begged Biden to change his policy, which he didn’t do until it was too late, and even still, the rules against hitting targets deep in Russia remain. Meanwhile, Republican leadership favors lifting such restrictions.
Not only did Biden put Zelensky in the awkward position of having to be on camera while his biggest aid provider delivered a partisan speech, ABC couldn’t be bothered to point out that Biden has some apologizing of his own to do. Maybe Biden isn’t Reagan-esque after all.
Here is a transcript for the June 8 show:
ABC Good Morning America
6/8/2024
7:06 AM ET
MARY BRUCE: Biden speaking at the same site where 40 years ago President Reagan delivered one of his most iconic speeches.
RONALD REAGAN: These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
BRUCE: And while Biden didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, the contrasts were clear. The president pitting his view of America’s role as a global leader against Trump’s isolationist America First stance.
JOE BIDEN: Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against Putin’s aggression here in Europe today?
BRUCE: Earlier Biden meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky apologizing for the delay in approving new military aid and blaming Republicans.
BIDEN: Some of our very conservative members who were holding it up, but we got it done.