News/Commentary

Biden used a cheat card to call on reporters

October 30, 2023 | | Print Article

The curtains were once again pulled back on White House orchestrations as the content of a Biden cheat sheet was publicly revealed.

Questions of President Joe Biden’s fitness for office have been a near constant throughout his administration and last week he showed how his handlers hadn’t done him any favors to dispel concerns.

Wednesday, as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was welcomed for an official state dinner and to reaffirm the alliance between his nation and the United States, he and Biden took part in a joint press conference from the White House Rose Garden.

The thinly veiled show that followed their remarks, as the president struggled to realize that it was up to him to call on a reporter to be asked a question, was summarily ripped away as an image revealed the specifics of a cheat sheet used that listed which four correspondents had been preselected for the event.

Slammed by some as holding a likeness to a “kindergarten work sheet,” the notecard that was tucked away after the press conference was revealed to include the names and images of four reporters listed as USA Today White House correspondent Joey Garrison, PBS correspondent Laura Barrón-López, Australia’s Channel 10 Network Political Editor Ashleigh Raper and The Australian’s Jeff Chambers.

They were the four reporters called on.

Prior to the big reveal, neither Biden nor his staff had done much to cover for the charade as he bumbled his way into calling on Barrón-López who already had someone poised to hand her a microphone when the president realized, “Oh, I get to ask,” and looked to his cheat sheet.

Exposure of the theatrics was hardly the first time the president had been caught being led through the motions and added a certain level of understanding to Vice President Kamala Harris’ feeling the need to remind the public that Biden “is very much alive” during a recent “60 Minutes” interview.

Along with some more embarrassing notes that had provided him instructions on greeting and sitting for other meetings, Biden’s joint press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Ye had operated as a similar production to Wednesday’s.

However, along with the image and name of Los Angeles Times journalist Courtney Subramanian, staffers in April had seen fit to include a breakdown on how to properly pronounce her name as well as to provide Biden with a gist of the expected question from the correspondent identified as “Question #1.”

Unlike the April press conference, it was not readily apparent if the president had been prompted as to the questions that Barrón-López would ask as she raised concerns about election integrity and then brought up the number of deaths reported from the “Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry” to challenge whether or not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ignoring requests “to minimize civilian casualties.”

To the latter, Biden asserted “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” before encouraging Israel to “be incredibly careful to be sure that they’re focusing on going after the folks that are…propagating this war against Israel. And it’s against their interest when that doesn’t happen.”

Despite his lucidity in that response, the lasting reputation of gaffes and the documented need to be guided resulted in widespread criticism for the need to curate questions.

Kevin Haggerty
Latest posts by Kevin Haggerty (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles