The Fine Whines of the Press (and the Wingnuts)

It has been a little bit enjoyable to watch the various reporters who were whining about President Biden not holding a formal news conference. It's probably not worth the time to point out that he has had a lot dumped on his plate (in no small part due to TFG's petulant refusal to cooperate during the transition) and that, well, he doesn't work for them.

{Cecelia Vega, ABC]: Final follow, sir. You mentioned circumstances that must be horrific. The Customs and Border Protection facility in Donna, Texas — I was there — is at 1,556 percent capacity —

THE PRESIDENT: Yep.

Q — right now, with mostly unaccompanied minors. There are kids that are sleeping on floors. They are packed into these pods. I’ve spoken to lawyers who say that they — some of these children have not seen the sun in days. What’s your reaction — what is your reaction to these images that have come out from that particular facility? Is what’s happening inside acceptable to you? And when is this going to be fixed?

THE PRESIDENT: Is — that’s a serious question, right?

Is it acceptable to me? Come on. That’s why we’re going to be moving a thousand of those kids out quickly. That’s why I got Fort Bliss opened up. That’s why I’ve been working from the moment this started to happen to try to find additional access for children to be able to safely — not just children, but particularly children — to be able to safely be housed while we follow through on the rest of what’s happening.

That is totally unacceptable.

To ABC's credit, they aired Vega's question and Biden's calling her out on the evening news. Because it was a pathetic moment in which a reporter confused snarkiness with toughness and Biden would have none of it. And really, what the hell was she trying to get at? Even TFG would have not agreed (publicly) that packing kids in at 500% capacity was acceptable.

What I saw of the press conference was basically a pathetic performance by the press corps. Biden came prepared to talk about larger issues and the press focused on inside-the-Beltway issues. The reporters are focusing on the game of politics instead of the issues of governance. They're pretty much falling down on the job of informing people. If they want to cover topics that have won/lost stats, they should be transferred and sent out to cover high-school sports back home.