NEW: The Biden Admin sent talking points out today touting their accomplishments to (some) reporters. It can only be described as a war on reality.
Quick 🧵 to break down the end-of-year desperation they’re hoping the press will buy. ⤵️
First, vaccination rates. Without mentioning that the Admin inherited three vaccines from their predecessor, Biden claims credit for a 70% jump in vaccination rate year-over-year.
A year ago, the first vaccine had been administered one week prior, so OF COURSE vax rates were low.
But when Biden was sworn in, the US was vaccinating citizens at the 5th highest rate in the developed world.
And the school opening stat is despite, not because of, the Admin, who has repeatedly pushed for anti-science measures at the behest of the teachers’ unions. foxnews.com/politics/white…
This same ham-fistedness applies to the stats on job creation, too.
Was anything happening in the last 3-5 months of the Trump Admin, guys? Might that factor in?
Taking credit for the creation of local and state jobs is also intellectually dishonest when so many of the largest job creating states - Florida, Texas, etc. - not only didn’t vote for Biden but have (with good reason) rejected his economic advice. worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings…
And I mean cmon. If someone thought REALLY hard, I’m sure they could figure out why hospitality jobs have come back whether or not the Admin had done anything.
But it gets even more ridiculous when the Biden Admin tries to combat reality on inflation.
Biden touts his “aggressive actions to address prices” in an attempt to elide that prices for consumer goods are near a 40 year high as a result of his policies.
Absent from this is that nearly 70% of Americans think Biden is doing a bad job at handling inflation and the economy. That even includes a *majority* of Dems.
You can almost feel the desperation coming off of the memo here.
I mean. How bad must things be to include gas prices dropping 10 cents *below their recent highs* as a victory?
The Biden Admin can spin these “facts” all they want, but it clearly isn’t convincing voters. His disapproval rate is over 50%, fully 6 points below Obama’s at this point before the 2010 midterm wipeout.
For those asking why the Biden Admin would bother doing this, the short answer is that…it works.
Here’s @axios, which I think is among the most fair outlets, parroting back what’s on this memo (with a tiny call-out at the end about inflation) axios.com/biden-year-acc…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
With the news that Trump freed the hostages and brokered an Israel/Hamas ceasefire, I thought it would be a good time to check in on the folks who compared the president to Hitler over the last few years, for reasons that I hope are obvious to you.
Remember? ⤵️
You may think the “Trump is literally Hitler” phrase is just a silly joke.
But for years, media outlets and left-wing voices on the internet have insisted that, no, really, Trump is just like Hitler.
Few have done so with as much gusto as @CNN.
Back in 2016, @CNN alleged that Trump rallies were just like Hitler rallies because…Trump had attendees raise their right hands.
A newly declassified CIA report on Joe Biden & Ukraine blows the doors off claims from the legacy press, in the lead up to the 2020 election and beyond, that Trump was pushing a “conspiracy theory” about Biden’s corruption.
Remember how the press buried Burisma? ⤵️
First, the facts. The report unearths how Biden blocked the release of intel from Ukrainian sources validating allegations of bribery tied to Biden’s diplomatic push to oust a prosecutor there in 2015, tied to his son Hunter’s work with the gas company Burisma.
You may remember this story because Biden’s having helped oust a prosecutor in a foreign country to allegedly protect his family’s corruption came up in the 2020 election.
To hear @ABC tell it, that was a “debunked Ukraine conspiracy theory.”
The media are melting down about former FBI director Jim Comey’s indictment, calling it Trump’s “retribution.”
But if prosecuting a political rival is such an outrage, why’d they cheer along when Biden went after Trump, Bannon & Navarro?
Some side-by-sides ⤵️
I want you to help me spot the difference in tone.
With Comey, @CNN put five — five! — reporters on the byline to declare the indictment was an “escalation” in “Trump’s effort to prosecute his political enemies.”
Where was that when Biden’s DOJ indicted Bannon? “A victory”
And @CNN wasn’t any better on Peter Navarro, another Trump aide indicted under Biden.
Rather than an “effort to prosecute…political enemies,” CNN quoted the prosecutor to tell the story.
Why is the claim of the government the framing of the piece under Biden? I have a guess.
The outrage over Kimmel’s canning is incredibly stupid, but it’s also enormously rich coming from the same media outlets who have cheered the government actually censoring people, particularly during COVID.
Let me know if you can spot the difference in tone? ⤵️
This @CNN headline made me think this story needed a thread.
Kimmel’s suspension is “straight from a European strongman’s playbook,” per @CNN’s @brianstelter.
When Biden cracked down on free speech during Covid, CNN hyped up the effort.
Few promoted the government’s actual attack on free speech more aggressively than the same @brianstelter now calling a comedian’s shelving evidence of autocracy, or something.
I know there’s a lot going on but we just had a media conspiracy implode that I think captures something important about the corporate press.
Did you hear about how Trump was allegedly going after John Bolton as retribution for his criticism?
Well…follow along ⤵️
We saw a week straight of media suggestions that Trump was abusing the powers of the state to deal out “retribution” to John Bolton following the news that the FBI (“Trump’s DOJ!” headlines rang out) raided his house.
We were in “unsettling” times, to hear @nytimes tell it.
The *Editorial Board* at @nytimes put out an even more dramatic statement, asking who Trump’s next payback victim after Bolton would be.
A single poll has bootstrapped a media narrative that DC residents are outraged by Trump’s takeover.
I poked around the cross tabs of the poll — of 600 or so of DC’s more comfortable residents — and I think it’s pretty suspect.
How come? Follow along: ⤵️
Let’s start with the poll. The @washingtonpost talked to 604 people, of whom 90% — 90%! — self-described as living in “very good” or “good” neighborhoods.
So, fine. 80% of people who like where they live in DC are upset.
But even beyond that, it’s worth asking whether this poll really captures DC’s opinion.
In the poll, only 31% describe crime as a “serious” or “very serious” problem in DC.
When @washingtonpost asked this same question in May, *50%* said it was a serious problem.