The inability of the mainstream media to accurately cover any of Joe Biden’s foibles is truly astonishing. If it was not already obvious by now, there is simply nothing Biden can say or do, no matter how incoherent, offensive, or alarming that would cause the current crop of “objective journalists” in the mainstream media, to even consider asking whether or not he has the mental capacity to be president of the United States.  It is not a stretch to say that Biden has received the most favorable press coverage of any modern presidential candidate in history, and it’s not even close.  Even the warm treatment that Barack Obama received during his presidential run in 2008 from his pals in the media pales in comparison.

Consider that in the last four months alone, Biden has asked a reporter if he was a “junkie,” told black voters that they’re not really black unless they vote for him, and said that there were “over 120 million dead from COVID,” in the U.S., without suffering any backlash from the media. He has confused the location of where he was speaking from, and was led by hand by a staffer out of a venue, as though he were blind.  He has read his talking point notes out loud during a virtual interview, “Look, Venezuela topline message is President Trump’s policy is an abject failure.” He can lose his entire train of thought during a roundtable discussion in which he has prepared notes in front of him, “You know the rapidly rising umm uh in with uh with I don't know,” without so much as a peep from the media.  Can anyone imagine what the headlines and constant barrage of media outrage would be if President Donald Trump had said or done any of those things?

The mainstream media finds Trump so morally and ethically repugnant that they would rather risk losing whatever credibility they have left, than to even suggest that a stumbling and often confused Biden has any businesses determining the U.S. tax code or holding China accountable for unleashing the Wuhan virus on the entire world.  Instead of reporting on what should be fairly obvious to anyone with eyes or ears, the media seems to believe their main job is not only to protect Biden, but to prop him up by making him look as coherent and effective a leader as possible.  At the DNC the bar was set so low for Biden’s speech that the media seemed astonished that he was able to successfully read concise sentences from a teleprompter for 24 minutes, without any notable hiccups.  Not surprisingly, we were greeted with fawning headlines from the Washington Post, “Biden offers sharp attack on Trump as a dark force and promises to be ‘an ally of the light’ as president,” and this one from the New York Times, “Biden Speaks Once More, With Feeling.”

Anyone who has watched Biden speak over the last several months knows that this is not the same Biden who served in the Senate for thirty-six years and then subsequently as vice president for another eight years.  This might not even be the same Biden who we saw on the debate stage during the Democratic primaries last year.  The one who said in response to a question about the legacy of slavery, “The teachers are -- I’m married to a teacher, my deceased wife is a teacher... It’s not that they don’t want to help, they don’t know what to play the radio, make sure the television -- excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night, the -- make sure that kids hear words.”

Historically speaking, it is true that Biden has a propensity to say idiotic things any time he opens his mouth, but these are not merely gaffes. In the same interview where he asked CBS News correspondent Errol Barnett if he was a “junkie” Biden also said, “I am so forward looking to have an opportunity to sit or stand with the president and debates... I am very willing to let the American public judge my physical and mental, fi—my fi—my physical, as well as my mental fitness.” In no rational world can that response to a question be considered merely a gaffe.  Stumbling over his own words, and uttering incoherent sentences is now a regular occurrence for Biden, and yet the media remains more silent than the tennis matches at this year's U.S. Open.

After Trump received a notable boost in the polls from the RNC, it was clear that the Biden campaign’s strategy of keeping him hidden in his basement simply would not suffice.  So last week they sent a compromised man out of his home to read from a teleprompter, where he stumbled yet again, “COVID has taken this year, just since the outbreak, has taken more than 100 years. Look, the lives, when you think about it, more lives this year than any other year for the past 100 years.”  Reporters have seldom had the opportunity to ask Biden any questions in the last several months, and in the rare circumstances when they are provided the opportunity, they almost never ask anything substantive, or adversarial.  He never has to face the wrath of belligerent reporters or the usual hostility, rudeness, and interruptions that we have come to expect from Trump White House briefings.

Last week at an event in Delaware, Biden stood at the podium, while his staffers called on preselected journalists.  One could be forgiven for wondering if these were reporters or Biden campaign officials who were asking him the questions.  Biden, who was often caught glancing down at his notes on the podium, with prepared answers to the “questions,” should not have had to use them.  The reporters allowed him to take every opportunity to dump on Trump without having to discuss any of the specifics about his own policies or ideas.  The two “toughest” questions Biden was asked was if he had been tested for COVID, and what he thought about the 1.4 million new jobs that were added last week.

No reporter bothered to ask Biden why he failed to condemn any of the violence that has dominated our streets in major cities across the country for the past three months.  No journalist asked how he could credibly accuse Trump or his supporters as somehow bearing responsibility for rioting and looting, done largely by Antifa and Black Lives Matter protestors in Democrat-run cities.  No one asked Biden if he condemned the angry mob of protestors that attacked Senator Rand Paul outside the White House after Trump’s RNC speech.  Not one reporter asked what his specific plans are for rebuilding the economy, creating more growth and more jobs.  Instead we are left with fawning reporters who cover for Biden’s declining cognitive skills and provide him every opportunity to attack Trump.  They are complicit in one of the greatest coverups ever orchestrated by the mainstream media.

Image: Gage Skidmore