Joe Biden has complained to the Senate Press Gallery because Human Events editor Jason Mattera used a pretext to pose a question the vice president would rather not have had to answer.
According to The Hill, Biden aides have “asked whether Senate rules were broken” when Mattera asked Biden for a photograph, then popped the embarrassing question: “Do you regret using a rape reference to describe Republican opposition to the president’s bill?”
It was that query that resulted in a visibly angry Biden threatening Mattera with the warning, “don’t screw around with me.” You can watch the exchange, which has been viewed nearly 400,000 times on YouTube, here.
Mattera’s defense is the obvious: “If I had said, ‘Hey, Mr. Vice President, a question regarding your rape comments,’ he would shrug it off. He’s not going to take questions hostile to his agenda. I want to get him in that honest moment when he doesn’t have his talking points and isn’t prepared to spin.”
So naturally Biden directs his aides to pressure the Senate Press Gallery to punish Mattera. And don’t be surprised if they do exactly that.
Heather Rothman, a Bureau of National Affairs reporter who chairs the gallery’s standing committee, said the incident is “being discussed.” The committee hasn’t met, she said, but “we’re aware of the concerns.”
The Senate Press Gallery exists at the sufferance of the U.S. Senate, as does the House Press Gallery at the sufferance of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Nobody with the gallery will admit it if it happens, but my guess is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office has also expressed its “concerns,” which translated means “stick it to this conservative journalist who refuses to be a toady for liberal politicians like Joe Biden.”
I’ve asked Rothman and Mattera for comment and will update this post with anything that comes back in response to my queries.
You can read The Hill’s account here.
UPDATE: Mattera says his press credentials are at risk
Jason Mattera tells Daily Caller that his press credentials could be jerked by the Senate Press Gallery as a result of Biden’s complaints:
“They’re suggesting that my credentials get yanked and I be investigated for asking a completely legitimate question. The administration is just whining and complaining like little toddlers because they’ve gotten their wrists slapped now on multiple occasions for making the suggestion that Republicans are enabling rape and violent crimes because they won’t pass another stimulus package.”
“This is a thug administration in action. This is the Chicago way and they can bring it on. Bring it on. I’m a credentialed member of the media and I have a little something-something called the First Amendment on my side.”
For more from Daily Caller, go here.
