Wow: Joe Biden’s staff won’t even let him do a “spontaneous” Q&A session without a script. Is he truly that far gone?
Compulsive scripting is the only description for what happened at last week’s Biden question-and-answer session with AFL-CIO union members, when the candidate responded to a young barista’s inquiry with the non sequitur, “Move it up here”– then stopped briefly.
Anybody who’s been following Biden’s travails acknowledges those words as a cue to his aides to jog the teleprompter, as he’s done time and once again in current weeks. (Why an experienced political leader with a first-class staff keeps having this difficulty is likewise uneasy.)
Anyhow, after the time out, Joe launched into his “off the cuff” reaction– which was utter boilerplate: “You understand, there utilized to be a standard bargain in this country, that employees shared in the wealth they helped produce.” It’s beyond appalling that Biden would require reminding of that trope.
His assistants will not even discuss the elephant in the room.
After the AFL-CIO video footage made the rounds, Fox News’ Bret Baier put the obvious concern to TJ Ducklo, the campaign’s national press secretary: “Has Joe Biden ever used a teleprompter throughout regional interviews or to respond to Q&A s with fans?”
Ducklo ducked the concern– repeatedly, prior to lastly stating, “I am not going to enable the Trump campaign to funnel their concerns through Fox News and get me to react to that.”
There’s your response.
Time and once again, teleprompter troubles have actually exposed the reality that Biden is simply reading his lines in what his project pretends are real conversations with fans, like Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.
He’s not even responding to press reporters’ concerns off the cuff: “Look, Venezuela topline message is …” he told an NBC Miami reporter– undoubtedly just reading the talking points he was handed in advance. He’s likewise given several interviews with his eyes down, clearly relying on ready notes in his lap.
This simply is not the Joe Biden of decades past, who might put his foot in his mouth however never ever needed a script to say what he thinks. If he can no longer answer even softball questions without the help of his overseers, who will actually be calling the shots if he wins the White Home?
