It is long past time for Joe Biden not just to emerge from his basement, but to hold an open press conference. Emphasis on “open.”
The media should stop protecting Biden and start asking tough but fair questions about his own record, with the same skepticism and aggressiveness with which they ask questions of President Trump.
The public should feel insulted by the gall of a nearly 78-year-old man asking to be leader of the free world while refusing to make himself available for some “give and take” without teleprompters or pre-screened questioners. Today, he finally held a press conference of sorts, but only with reporters from his own pre-chosen pool — and almost all the questions were softballs.
Biden’s opponent, Trump, is, if anything, too accessible, almost weirdly so, in ways that let us judge for ourselves his fables, lies, and smears as well as his roundabout explanations of his policies du jour. Biden, on the other hand, is rarely accessible, and even when he reads from a screen, he sometimes stumbles embarrassingly. He did better today, but most of the questions were of the “tell us how you’ll save us from Trump” variety. The tone was uber-respectful, almost reverent.
Biden must be put through a tougher gauntlet than that.
Biden has sold himself as a relative centrist but chose the most left-wing member of the Senate as his running mate. He owes it to all of us to reassure us that his alleged centrism actually will hold sway for a full term of office.
If Biden does have the courage to hold a wide-open press conference, here are a few questions reporters should ask:
Do you support the Green New Deal and, with specifics, why or why not?
At least four times you have said you want to eliminate or ban “fracking” or even all use of fossil fuels, and your running mate explicitly says she would ban fracking, but you’ve also said Trump lies when he says you want to ban fracking. Once and for all, what is your position, with specifics, on fracking and on fossil fuel policy in general?
Even if you or your son Hunter Biden broke no laws in dealing with policies and investments in Ukraine, the simple fact is that Hunter’s business partner met with you two days before Hunter joined the board of the Burisma energy company. Three interrelated questions: Did you know he was going to take that position? Did you then or do you now think it should have raised any red flags since you were the administration’s point man on diplomacy with Ukraine? Finally, once Hunter was on the board of a company whose leader was under investigation there, why did you not recuse yourself from Ukrainian policy and ask President Barack Obama to give that portfolio to someone else?
You took Hunter with you to China on Air Force Two, and 10 days later, Hunter’s firm nabbed a deal worth up to $1.5 billion from the bank of China’s communist government. Why did you bring Hunter with you on a government plane while he was seeking business deals with a state-owned entity of the government you were doing diplomacy with? What public purpose was served by bringing Hunter with you on Air Force Two?
Your running mate has harshly criticized you for overseeing passage of the 1994 crime bill, about which at times you have boasted and at other times have said parts of it were big mistakes. Sen. Kamala Harris said the law was terrible because it led to mass incarceration, but the mass incarceration also contributed to a national drop in violent crime by 49% in 17 years. Again, three interrelated questions. Was the law a good one or not? Was the increased incarceration of people, including a large rise in incarceration of black Americans, worth it? What specifically was good about the law, and what was ill-advised?
Many more questions should be asked of Biden, but those alone should test his mettle.
