Prediction pundit Nate Silver is making news with a call for President Joe Biden to make more public appearances, insinuating that the Biden team is shielding its man from scrutiny in broad daylight, worried that a gaffe attributable to his age could emerge from an event.
“Biden is out of excuses,” Silver writes, asserting that the president’s age is a “disqualifying prospect” that, along with Trump’s “disqualifying features,” is reason for “Biden to stand down.”
Silver’s suggestion that Biden quit is based on the former New York Times writer‘s notion that Biden is unable “to run a normal reelection campaign — meaning things like conduct a Super Bowl interview.” It’s a curious charge, critics say, since Biden has been active and his schedule is publicly available.
If the public doesn’t see as much of Biden as it does of his rival Donald Trump selling gold sneakers, that is due to a choice made by the media, Biden defenders say.
If the flubs are all that’s reported on, with the rest of the appearance ignored, how’s he supposed to do that?
— adub (@adub01488424) February 19, 2024
Speaking back to Silver’s accusation, the tweet below wonders why Silver is “gaslighting” on the Biden narrative, citing Biden’s “20 public events and 10 press conferences or gaggles this month” already, while also performing his other presidential duties.
President Biden has done 20 public events and 10 press conferences or gaggles this month and it’s the 19th.
Nate Silver is gaslighting and it’s time for us to start asking why. https://t.co/P8G5hnvIIP
— Small Biz Centrist (@SmallBizRealist) February 19, 2024
Silver, who like most pundits predicted a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016, got some blowback for his certainty. Predictably, Silver’s prognostication record took some hits:
Unlike Nate Silver, Joe Biden has a track record of success.
— Sydra (@sydrasmith) February 19, 2024
The Biden should step-down ship “has sailed” writes another commenter taking apart Silver’s late substitution plan, noting the challenge of getting a new candidate up to the needed name recognition level before November.
Super Bowl recusal aside, another commenter points out Biden’s full docket, wondering how the narrative of his purported unavailability gets its fuel — when the reality doesn’t support it.
Problem is that in the 2.5 weeks of Feb, Biden did the Natl Prayer Breakfast, met with military families, UAW event in MI, multiple open press campaign events in PA and NV, WH Black History Month event, and gave speeches w/ Germany and Jordan. His schedule is public and packed. https://t.co/ZtZD4dhfR7
— Jamesetta Williams (@jalexa1218) February 19, 2024
In early February, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates claimed Biden was as active — or more so — that many former presidents, telling Politico that the perception was divorced from the facts: “President Biden is crisscrossing the country at a rate that often exceeds his predecessors’ travel schedules,” Bates said, “talking to the American people about their lives and the issues that matter most to them.”
Big fundraising numbers for the Biden-Harris campaign also appear to signal a measure of satisfaction with the ticket among Democrats, yet these still produce bifurcated headlines like this at CNN: Biden draws in $42 million in January amid a fresh round of Democratic handwringing.
That article says the handwringing is “over the campaign’s operations, low polling and a fresh spotlight on Biden’s age and memory in the wake of special counsel Robert Hur’s report.”
[Dems are already warning that Hur’s upcoming congressional testimony will play in the media like 48 hours of free advertising for Trump, as Hur — a Republican Trump appointee — is expected to expound on his report’s “gratuitous” Biden commentary.]
Only democrats would be asked to dump a winning ticket that got the most votes ever in history and are currently at the height of a seven year winning streak. Trump has cost republicans everything and not a single media figure is demanding that he not run.
— Tim (@trouble_man90) February 20, 2024
Frustration with the media from Biden supporters runs deep. They see an irresponsible propensity to create a false equivalence between Trump and Biden in what they characterize as a disingenuous, harmful stab at “fairness.”
I can’t endorse this tweet more. And the REALLY frustrating thing is they (the media) will never, ever admit it’s true. Like, they really are willing to burn down the country if it increases the chances they get a seven-figure book deal. https://t.co/ywzv24VbRK
— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) February 19, 2024
The New York Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger felt the need to answer to the charge, telling Reuters in an interview that Biden “is a historically unpopular incumbent and the oldest man to ever hold this office.”
Sulzberger said the Times had “reported on both of those realities extensively, and the White House has been extremely upset about it.” He also said: “We are not saying that this is the same as Trump’s five court cases or that they are even. They are different.”
Dissatisfaction with mainstream media coverage is perhaps the only thing Biden and Trump have in common. Trump consistently rails against media, most especially the “failing New York Times,” for what he characterizes as “unfair” coverage.