Reporters in Washington to this day act like they’ve just come out of a war zone because former President Donald Trump called them “fake news.” It escapes them that they might have earned the title.
Case in point, the New York Times this past weekend published a nauseating profile on Vice President Kamala Harris that was not only gross in how explicit it was in its flattery of a person in power but also in how shameless it was in describing Harris and President in Biden in ways that fly in the face of reality.
The story starts by recalling a public appearance by Biden wherein he doubled back in his remarks to emphasize that his priorities in addressing the pandemic were actually shared with Harris. The Times called it “a rare slip for the president.”
Right, because we all know how rare it is for Biden to “slip.” His smooth, silver tongue is renowned across the globe.
The paper also remarked on “a surprising chemistry” that Harris and Biden share. I guess that’s a matter of opinion, but is there some spark between the socially-distanced pair that I’m missing? In every appearance they share, Harris looks all the part of Biden’s Secret Service detail, positioned 6 feet behind him in a wide stance with her arms crossed at her lap.
But reading the Times, you’d swear Harris was a decisive leader in her own right, using great authority to ensure that things in Washington get done.
“The vice president has already made her presence known,” the paper said, “most recently Friday morning, when she traveled to Capitol Hill before sunrise to cast a tiebreaking vote in the Senate, clearing the way for Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package to move forward without Republican support.”
Harris did the equivalent of punching her time card, and we’re supposed to be impressed. This is the one thing constitutionally required of her — breaking tied Senate votes. Former Vice President Mike Pence and many others did it before her. But in Harris’s case, doing this “has already made her presence known.” OK.
The entire profile reads as if Harris wrote it herself. It’s like when a job applicant knows his past experience isn’t really impressive or remarkable in any way, so he throws a bunch of phrases on his resume that at least sound important. Harris has “repeatedly pushed for more focus” on certain things. Her “persistence has left a deep impression” on Biden. She once “peppered” another White House official “with questions.”
I’ve always hated the term “fake news,” but so often, it fits.
