I’ll keep this short—like the leash Fox News should have on Peter Doocy, who is to journalism what Edward R. Murrow is to whatever Peter Doocy’s profession is supposed to be.
Normally, President Biden’s White House press secretary, the sublime Jen Psaki, plays tetherball with Doocy’s pasty, addled pate for a few rounds of “spot the dishonest framing.” But Wednesday, in a kick-ass press conference that reminded everyone in attendance and at home who won the damn election, Biden dispatched Doocy all on his own.
Watch (second tweet):
DOOCY: “Why are you trying so hard in your first year to pull the country so far to the left?”
BIDEN: [Laughs] “Well, I’m not. I don’t know what you consider to be too far left. In fact, we’re talking about making sure we have the money for COVID, making sure we have the money to put together bipartisan infrastructure, making sure we’re able to provide for those things that in fact will significantly reduce the burden on working-class people to make them have to continue to work hard. I don’t know how that’s pointed to the left. You may recall, you guys have been trying to convince me that I am Bernie Sanders. I’m not. I like him, but I’m not Bernie Sanders. I’m not a socialist. I’m a mainstream Democrat, and I have been. The mainstream Democrats ... I don’t know if you’ve noticed, the 48 of the 50 Democrats supported me in the Senate on virtually everything I’ve asked.”
Bravo!
Biden might have added “traditional” Democrat—as in, the kind of Democrat who prevailed before Reaganomics cut the poor and middle class off at the knees, leading to the yawning chasm of wealth inequality we’ve been forced to live with for decades now.
And, for his part, Doocy might have asked, “Why are you trying so hard to pull the country so far to the left of Dwight Eisenhower, who presided over a growing middle class and a top marginal tax rate of 91%?”
But if he did that, he wouldn’t have a sound bite to bring home to Daddy Rupert, now would he?
Here’s wishing you luck in your quest to become a real boy, Peter. In the meantime, perhaps you should think about switching careers. Maybe you could get a job on Devin Nunes’ dairy farm. After all, literally shoving shit is a much more honest profession than metaphorically doing so.
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