OPINION:
President Biden presents himself as an avuncular good ol’ boy from Scranton.
Uh, no.
Aside from his creepy behavior with women and children (c’mon, who sniffs hair?), he’s also a calculating SOB who has ruthlessly made his way in politics by slashing and burning his opponents.
Of course, he’s no different from his predecessors — you don’t get to be president unless you’re a real, well, let’s just say a nickname for Richard. The great thing about former President Donald Trump was clueing us into this: All these guys are vicious, calculating Machiavellis — former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, President Biden, and every politician, really. For the record, the Founding Fathers were not great guys.
As they say, politics ain’t beanbag.
But Mr. Trump was the only one to own it, the first to show us behind the curtains to the real man.
Not Mr. Biden, though. He’s put on this facade of being just a Regular Joe, walkin’ and talkin’ and dropping his G’s.
On the 2020 campaign trail, Mr. Biden pulled out a slew of Bidenisms, as The Washington Post dubbed his colloquialisms.
“My dad had an expression. He used to say, ‘Joey, you’re going to be a college man,’” he said at one stop. At another, he said, “If my mother were here, she’d say, ‘Joe, hush up and start taking some questions.’” Ah, good ol’ Joe, talking ’bout his mammy and pappy. He’s one of us!
But in the last week, the American people have gotten a glimpse of the real “Wizard of Odd.”
On Wednesday, Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich shouted a question to Mr. Biden on the Ukraine situation. “Why are you waiting on Putin to make the first move, sir?”
“What a stupid question,” Mr. Biden said under his breath — but clearly intending for it to be heard.
And then Monday, he showed his true colors when Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked: “Do you think inflation will be a political liability ahead of the midterms?”
“That’s a great asset, more inflation,” Mr. Biden spat sarcastically. “What a stupid son of a b——.”
Just hours after Mr. Biden took the inaugural oath on Jan. 20, 2021, he gathered up all the White House staff and other top federal employees and read them the Riot Act.
“I am not joking when I say this, if you are ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” a fiery Mr. Biden pledged. “On the spot. No ifs, ands or buts.”
“You’re engaged in and you’re working with the most decent government in the world,” Mr. Biden said. “And we have to restore the soul of this country, and I’m counting on all of you to be part of that. And it’s not hyperbole. The only thing I expect with absolute certitude is honesty and decency.”
“Everybody … everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity,” Mr. Biden told his staff that day. “That’s been missing in a big way the last four years,” he had said of the Trump era.
But then there’s the “real” Mr. Biden.
At his bizarre press conference on Wednesday, RealClearNews reporter Philip Wegmann said, “You ran on a return to civility,” before noting that he characterized everyone who opposed his voting bills — read: every Republican in Congress — as nothing more than racists.
“No, I didn’t say that,” Mr. Biden scowled. “That is an interesting reading of English. You — I assume you got into journalism because you liked to write.”
And Mr. Biden also proved this week to be a small man. He called Mr. Doocy — ostensibly to apologize for calling him a “son of a b——” — but he couldn’t quite pull the trigger.
“He cleared the air and I appreciate it,” Doocy told Sean Hannity on his Fox show. “We had a nice call.”
“That’s not an answer,” Hannity said, laughing. “That doesn’t sound like an apology.”
“He said, ‘It’s nothing personal, pal.’ And I told him that I appreciate him reaching out,” Doocy said.
Yup, calling someone a “son of a b——” is not at all personal.
You gotta wonder what color the sky is in Mr. Biden’s world.
And whether he even knows.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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