White House Comms Team Hits Back at Report They Undermine Biden — By Undermining Him Further?
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President Joe Biden appears to have some issues with the White House communications team, according to a new report revealing his authority has at times been undermined by statements walking back his public comments about a variety of issues.
But in a curious form of unintentional point-proving, the White House communications team issued a statement pushing back on the idea that the White House communications team has undermined the president, which kind of only undermines the president’s reported frustration even further.
Confused? let’s take a look at a recent NBC News report that detailed a “Biden White House adrift.” According to the lengthy article, Biden has expressed frustration with a “pattern” of aides releasing statements designed to walk back or clarify his public comments.
Those “walk back” statements have only reinforced a growing narrative among Republicans — and in conservative media — that Biden isn’t really in charge. From the report:
Beyond policy, Biden is unhappy about a pattern that has developed inside the West Wing. He makes a clear and succinct statement — only to have aides rush to explain that he actually meant something else. The so-called clean-up campaign, he has told advisers, undermines him and smothers the authenticity that fueled his rise. Worse, it feeds a Republican talking point that he’s not fully in command.
Keep in mind that this is an NBC News report co-authored by four reputable writers: Carol E. Lee, Peter Nicholas, Kristen Welker and Courtney Kube. This article is not the work of a conservative outlet like the Washington Examiner or the New York Post. These are accomplished reporters at an outlet not known for unfairly attacking Democrats.
Still, the White House pushed back hard in a statement provided to Mediaite.
“The breathlessness of paragraphs 1 & 2 versus the denial being relegated to graph 28 tells you what you need to know about this story,” a spokesman said. “And as we’ve said before, no clarifications of the President’s remarks are ever issued without his direct approval.”
Why are White House aides pushing back so hard on a report that makes their guy look…more in control? No good reason, as far as I can tell, other than the obvious shifting of blame from their statements to their boss, the guy they are supposed to be making look good. Presuming of course that the NBC News report has merit.
Parsing their statement further, one sees two clear ideas: 1) the report is untrue, evidenced by the inclusion of a White House statement that says so, and 2) The president has approved all remarks, so even if he is frustrated about communications strategy, that’s on him.
The first part is debatable. The comms team says the report of Biden’s frustration isn’t accurate, but NBC News felt comfortable enough with their source to put their reputations on the line by reporting it as fact.
The second part of that is rather stunning. The White House communications team is pushing back on the idea that they are undermining Biden through conflicting statements — by releasing a statement that conflict with his reported frustration. If true, it’s effectively “don’t blame us; we just work here.”
The broader context of this entire story is a Biden administration enduring a remarkably challenging political time. Biden has faced many challenges and conflicts, and to hear the White House tell the story, his administration has collected some wins along the way, but nothing positive has consistently landed in the news cycle.
Perhaps the White House communications teams should spend more time promoting the administration and less time blaming the president for whatever ills with which they are facing?
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
