White House press secretary Jen Psaki disclosed in a Thursday podcast with CNN analyst David Axelrod that President Joe Biden’s advisers routinely caution him against speaking to reporters.
That’s of course no surprise. If you’ve been paying attention, Biden is often absent for days, and when he does speak, he rarely makes sense for more than a couple of minutes. The man even struggles when reading a teleprompter.
But Pskai actually admitted to Axelrod on his “The Axe Files” podcast Thursday that those around him make a concerted effort to keep him away from answering questions.
Axelrod, the former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, gushed over Psaki’s resume on the hour-long podcast. She of course worked for former Secretary of State John Kerry and also for former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Axelrod, who has run in the same circles, asked the press secretary about what it’s like to work as the face of the Biden administration.
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Psaki might have gotten a little too comfortable with her left-wing cohort, as she made a stunning admission: Biden is regularly dissuaded from being open with the Biden-friendly mainstream media.
After Axelrod essentially pointed out Biden has a propensity to speak without first considering the ramifications of his words, Psaki laughed and shared the truth about why he’s rarely seen in front of the cameras.
With regard to Biden going off the script and admitting that a federal minimum wage hike would not be inlaced in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, Biden created headaches for those around him — including Psaki.
The ineffectual Psaki downplayed the incident, and even claimed Biden answers to reporters “nearly every day.”
Then the admission came.
“That is not something we recommend. In fact, a lot of times we say ‘Don’t take questions,’” she added. “But he’s going to do what he wants to do because he’s the president of the United States.”
Not only has Biden not answered many questions from reporters, but when he has, his responses have often generated the wrong kinds of headlines.
Example:
BIDEN EN FUEGO pic.twitter.com/dBpOdsu5ah
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 5, 2021
There is of course endless speculation as to whether Biden is suffering from a cognitive decline. Biden does little to dispel rumors that he is capable of handling the most important job on the planet, as he doesn’t, nor has he ever been able to, get out of his own way.
But Psaki’s revelation that Biden is advised against taking questions from the media is important. It’s essentially an admission that even those around him don’t believe he’s capable of handling questions from people begging to give him not only softballs, but also the benefit of the doubt at every turn.
Whatever happened to all of that “truth” and “transparency” talk from inauguration day?
According to Psaki, the face of Biden’s floundering administration, Biden might intentionally be evasive when it comes to being available to reporters, and she and others encourage that. We’re all supposed to trust this man with the nuclear codes when those who know him best don’t even trust him with his own words.