During a rare public appearance on Tuesday, Joe Biden sounded a lot like an election denier, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that it’s all fun and games.
“Hello Virginia — and the real governor, Terry McAuliffe,” Biden shouted as he gestured toward the state’s former chief executive who was in the audience at a pro-abortion rally in Manassas.
McAuliffe, however, lost fair and square to Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin in the November 2021 gubernatorial election.
Even on a good day, most would agree that Biden is not particularly lucid when he is out in public.
On X, Youngkin shared the video along with a playful quip.
“Mr. President, I’m right here,” the very real governor wrote on his social media message.
Mr. President, I’m right here. https://t.co/wSpbqmLX9w
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) January 23, 2024
Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, who is perhaps the only reporter who poses tough questions in the White House press room, subsequently asked Jean-Pierre if “election denying is a joke now.”
Do we need more journalists like Peter Doocy?
The subtext here is that according to Democrats from Biden on down, so-called election denying is a grave threat to democracy — perhaps something metaphorically as bad or even worse than waterboarding.
With some degree of snark, Karine Jean-Pierre initially tried to deflect by dismissing Doocy’s inquiry as a “random statement” that lacked context.
When Doocy explained that he was specifically referring to Biden’s Manassas, Virginia, remarks, Jean-Pierre responded four times that Biden was making a joke “about McAuliffe’s previous term as governor.”
Doocy then followed up asking, “How are you guys gonna convince people, though, that this idea of denying election results is very bad if President Biden is going out and making jokes about this?”
The White House spokeswoman, who has earned a reputation for gaslighting and obfuscating, denied that Biden was election denying and added that her boss was quick “out of the gate, really, truly” in congratulating Youngkin when the latter won the statewide election in purple Virginia.
She also asserted that the Biden administration and the Youngkin team have worked together on a bipartisan basis on some issues.
Most likely speaking for thousands or perhaps millions of voters, especially given former President Trump’s legal woes, the GunsnGolf X account called out the double standard:
“Rules for thee but not for me! If Trump would’ve made the same type of remark he’d have a new indictment today.”
The Democrats, moreover, have a long, documented history of election denying (Stacey Abrams being one of their more recent and prominent standard-bearers in this regard) and mounting various election challenges in the courts, as suggested by this widely shared compilation:
Here are 24 STRAIGHT MINUTES of Democrats denying election resultspic.twitter.com/gDnNqfruWD
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 2, 2023
When Trump and other Republicans bring a focus on election integrity, however, especially about mail-in ballots with no chain of custody or signature checks, it’s considered by Democrats, the establishment media, and the RINOs as next-level perfidy.
As an side, the abortion issue is apparently going to be one of the divisive agenda items that Democrats plan to exploit in this election cycle while they try to avoid talking about the cost-of-living crisis or the ongoing catastrophe at the wide-open U.S. southern border.
