CNN’s Town Hall With Biden Was a Softball

CNN’s town hall with Joe Biden on Thursday was a softball despite the president facing crises at home and abroad.

For one, the number of audience questioners identified by party affiliation  was uneven with seven Democrats, three Independents and two Republicans, according to Fox News.

The questions from the moderator, Anderson Cooper, were nothing but easy for Biden. These questions included what would and what might not be included in the final reconciliation package that would be the greatest expansion of government welfare since the Great Society and would seek to deal with climate change. Given the trillions of dollars in proposed spending, Cooper should have challenged Biden on the price tag, our $28 trillion (and counting) national debt and the inflation that has already occurred and would worsen were those trillions to become reality. Cooper should have asked if there should be new or increased taxes as people and businesses are still dealing with the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden made a lot of news during the town hall such as saying that he’s open to changing the filibuster for voting

rights “and maybe more.” Cooper failed to press Biden on what precedent changing the filibuster would set in that it would cause for there to be calls for abolishing it on issues other than voting legislation such as climate change, and that Republicans, if and when they get control of both houses of Congress and the White House, could eliminate the filibuster altogether. Eliminating the filibuster would go against Biden’s call for unity and bipartisanship and it would erode American democratic norms, which Biden and the Democrats have accused Republicans of doing.

Topics omitted during the town hall included the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as Americans and Afghan allies that helped the United States during the almost-20-year war have been abandoned; in addition to the scandal that has engulfed Loudoun County Public School in Virginia that allegedly tried to sweep two accusations of sexual assault of female students under the rug.

Biden should have also been asked about critical race theory and whether parents should tell schools what to teach their kids – something that Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe has said should not be the case. Biden should have been asked to react to the anger parents have displayed at school board meetings over coronavirus protocols and curriculums as this has been a trend nationwide.

Additionally, while Biden was asked about increasing gas prices nationwide, Cooper should have asked him why he shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline while allowing Russia’s

Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be completed and, regarding the latter, he gave what was a geopolitical gift to Vladimir Putin despite the tough talk about Russia Biden expressed during his presidential campaign.

While the CNN town hall succeeded in being newsworthy, it failed in holding the president accountable. It should not come as a surprise that CNN is Biden’s go-to platform – having done all his town halls as president with the network, according to former CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller – just like Fox News was former President Donald Trump’s.