Transcript for:
The Media's Changing Coverage of President Biden

hey everyone I'm Megan Kelly welcome to the Megan Kelly show what a difference a week makes the media has done a complete 180 in its coverage of President Biden as they can no longer deny what is clear to any American with eyes and ears of course now that the wheels are coming off the bus they're all trying to go off with it what I wasn't on that bus I never helped advance that bus I was always obviously aware of his cognitive abilities sure okay remember it was just a couple of weeks ago that White House Press Secretary uh Karine jeanpierre and the media called these videos circulating showing President Biden's concerning moments of public events cheap fakes so what gives here to discuss it all my executive producer of this show Steve KRA hour who's also a media analyst and critic Steve great to have you hey Megan good to talk to you all right so this we're taping the show on uh Wednesday afternoon and we're going to release it morning we just finished our Wednesday afternoon live taping can you believe the storm that is now swirling around the president I mean like what do you make of this is somebody who watches the media I've never seen anything like this well at this point I I can believe it I mean I think that this is the floodgates have officially opened I would say in the in the minutes after the debate ended and you know we went live as soon as the debate ended I mean literally the debate was actually still going on and you said said that Joe Biden it's it's over the nomination it's it's his run in 2024 is over whether he knows it or not I was actually a little surprised to hear that I thought well you know that's that's but but you were obviously completely right on and it was a little bit surprising in those initial hours that the media really followed suit right I we saw from CNN's John King and then we saw reporting from CBS and then it just started the Snowball Effect and and I really did think after that disastrous debate that the floodgates we would start to see this leak leak leak and then and then things would open up you know maybe it would be around this time that things would start to kind of kind of galvanize around this message but it was immediate and I think it was because it was just so obvious and and I think there's other things at play I think the the the corporate press along with a lot of the elements of the democratic establishment realized that Joe Biden could not beat Donald Trump and that is what led to this but so so at this point I mean we're just getting story after Story and I think that there is a real pressure campaign that's being waged through the media right now to get Joe Biden to at least step down as the nominee and potentially as the president um but at this point yeah I think it's it's a foregone conclusion this is happening very fast and I think we're going to see it over very soon it is a Pyon at the moment and you know what's interesting if you watch the language as we all do very carefully you're seeing new language even not just from the Press but even from the president's advisors so I I asked the team to put together this is a bued so meaning buted sound on tape of Karine jeanpierre and another white house representative in Sam's and listen to like they're defending the president and what they've seen but listen to how they phrase it it's no longer being stated that he's fine as a matter of fact we've shifted see if you can hear the shift I would see this as what it was and what we believe it to be which is it was a bad night I have have engagement with the president pretty regularly uh what I see is a strong resolute president who's always willing and and able to work on behalf of the American people we are acknowledging what what people are seeing but we do believe this was a uh in in this instance it was a bad night we believe that this is a president that is able to continue to deliver and build on the unprecedented success that he's been able to do that's what we believe we believe and he believes it when I deal with him he's sharp he's asking tough questions and he's speaking I think maybe most importantly speaking passionately about what matters to him what's the common thread you heard in all those answers yeah yeah oh yeah I mean they're they are uh I think they're scrambling right now and uh and and I think that you look these are these are paid partisans and this is also I mean we've seen this multiple times now over the course of the day whether no matter it's Andrew Bates who's like one of my least favorite spokes people because I mean he literally is just lying at all times they are not going to say that that Joe Biden is is thinking about leaving is possibly going to leave is acknowledging that there's real problems until he announces it I mean they are well and and they're not going to say he's fine like they're no longer going to say he's 100% fine and now it's been reduced to my opinion we believe we believe what I see we do believe that's what we believe when I deal with him that's what Sams was saying when I what I've seen because all of that I mean I I actually think there's some evidence in all of that couching they're worried about Congressional hearings they could be worried about potential I don't like investigations not charges there's no criminality here as far as I can tell but they're putting the distance between them and the lies maybe their next job you know at this point I mean updating their LinkedIn and saying I'm not going to go out on TV and fully lie I've got to I've got to start to worry about what comes next because so many of these people that are the closest advisers to Joe Biden uh what happens to them I mean maybe they're part of the next KLA Harris run maybe not I mean this point it's kind of you know rats jumping off the seeking ship here yeah they are jumping off they are rats and they it's too late to save themselves I hate to tell them but couching it now in terms of your opinion is a day late and a dollar short um okay so there's I I I would say off the top of my head the the two worst offenders when it comes to this 180 in the Press coverage you know like nothing to see here move on um and now oh deeply alarming and he must step down are Morning Joe and the New York Times do you agree yes yes and I I think there's there's a distinction between those two and I will say the New York Times distinction is most interesting to me because they are they were essentially the rest of the pack I mean I think that they were with the rest of the media up until Thursday night and so they were undistinguishable from the rest and now they have to some level of credit distinguish themselves from that Friday morning the daily podcast and for people who are just sort of general consumers of news when that daily I mean this that daily is is the biggest podcast in America um by a wide margin it's it is kind of sets the agenda for the left side of the country that was a brutal episode for Joe Biden that was I believe what led to some of these floodgates opening even Beyond The New York Times so I think the New York Times distinguishes themselves now as this real 180 because they were just as bad as everyone else before now they're leading the charge to get him out they were they were just as bad as everyone else before now they're leading the charge to get him out and what do and how do you see morning Joe's culpability here well Morning Joe just feels just so gross I mean Joe from Joe scarbo to mik binski uh we know that this is they're the siant of the media when it comes to the Biden Administration they are talking to this audience of one and they have been during this entire presidency we know that Joe Biden loves Morning Joe and by extension I would say Morning Joe Scarboro loves Joe Biden I've said it for years now he's cogent but I under sold him when I said he was cogent he's far beyond cogent in fact I think he's better than he's ever been start your tape right now because I'm about to tell you the truth and F you if you can't handle the truth this version of Biden intellectually analytically is the best Biden ever not a close second and I've known him for years the brazinski have known him for 50 years if it weren't the truth I wouldn't say then I think it's critical that we ask the same questions about this man I love respect but can he run for president in 2024 in fact as the New York Times said he spent much of the night with his mouth a gape and his eyes darting back and forth he couldn't fact check anything Donald Trump said and not only that he missed one layup after another after another last night he simply was not on the biggest debate stage ever I'll even use the word tragically he tragically did not rise to the occasion last night look they are one of the worst offenders because they saw him they knew him behind the scenes now there's been a lot of reporting that even people like Tom fredman who yeah they've gotten a a a a they've got they've sat down they've had a drink or they not a drink but they've had a meal with Joe Biden before but okay maybe that was once a year Joe scoro and mik brazinski they knew and they tried to cover it that they were very much you know explicit and they were complicit in this cover up on the media side and so now you know you got ma coming out there after the weekend who just literally was regurgitating the Democratic talking points uh the the The Joe Biden talking points just just for 15 minutes to start the show obviously Joe scarbo wasn't there and and he's just almost crying and how he's T so sad about it he's trying a different tactic a little bit um but he was bad in the beginning and it's just so embarrassing now I know it was amazing to hear her be like oh cross country trips and Hunters conviction and there was a state dinner and so he's super tired and I got real questions about these advisers that would put him out after you know meanwhile he'd been back stat side for 10 days it's just such an obvious lie she I think she literally took their talking points and made a little memo for herself out of it and read it on the air but meanwhile Scarboro was missing an action weirdly on vacation without his wife that day after going out on the air that previous Friday and saying you know I he didn't say the words I was wrong but he said he can't do it he was he's unable to prosecute case against Donald Trump Megan they have a home studio in their main home during the summer I mean this was like Joe Scaro in the other room okay KN going out on air to do this right too ashamed I really do Wonder like what what happened behind the scenes I'd love to know so the New York Times I think it's actually rather amazing the amount of hotsbot that they are showing in now condemning him as old and infirm and incapable given how they dismissed the videos showing us all of that as cheap fakes just weeks ago now his cognitive problems have been long in the making you know you and I we reminded the audience that back in 2022 we did an episode it was an early episode for our show doing a deep dive in his cognitive abilities and we talked behind the scenes about is this appropriate you know we don't want to diagnose somebody who we haven't actually seen that's not right but this is a new story and we put on Dr bredeson who's an expert in brain health like we we took it very seriously back then but almost nobody was touching it back then and and that was specifically why we did it you know this is peek behind the curtain here but you and I have these conversations and say what is true and what are people not saying what is what is the story that's important that is that is absolutely you know based in truth but that people are afraid to talk about that people are not doing and Biden's cognitive Fitness and his cognitive decline was certainly one of them and so we said well let's take it seriously we had on people from the left and right Rich Lowry and Ryan Grim we had on Dr bres and the specialist in brain health let's take it seriously let's actually do this because it's important and and obviously we've been seeing this for years and it there has been a lot of reporting in the last few days that the last 6 to n months have gotten significantly worse I think we have seen some evidence of that but it certainly didn't start Thursday night I I think that that's obvious to anyone who's been paying even a little bit of attention to what's going on oh yeah I mean the New York Times actually was like oh in the in past three weeks it's gotten really bad okay all right sure well after we issued our earlier Publications defending all those moments so let's talk about some of those moments because it's really telling okay so the team has put together some great some great uh information for us both to digest here now the New York Times they talked about this is an article from 621 how misleading videos are trailing Biden as he battles age doubts misleading they say uh look he's got many adversaries in this year's election and then there are the distorted there is the distorted online version of himself a product of often misleading videos and they go on to say oh the conservative news outlets the RNC Trump team they're circulating videos of him that lack important context they've Twisted mundane moments to paint him in an unflattering light the New York Times review of these videos found that some scenes were cut short and taken out of context other Clips were cropped in a way that omitted crucial details some of the videos of Mr Biden circulating during this year's campaign are clearly manipulated to make him look old and confused okay so like what New York Times walk us through it this is what they said on June 21st about let's see oh D-Day this is about the D-Day event in France they're talking about how he walked out and he didn't stay long enough macron was left there to to say to greet all the veterans and the conservatives did point this out and say he screwed it up and Joe Biden had to take him out so this is what they report on June 21 he was escorted out an event by his wife Jill Biden when President Emanuel macron of France stayed behind to greet veterans but then the point the times wants you to know is a longer video showed Mr Biden greeting veterans before his exit and then walking out with Dr Jill okay so they're basically saying he greeted the veterans he just did it before his exit so calm down now on July 2nd there was an awkward moment when Mr mcon made sure the president got safely down the ramp that was it was awkward why didn't you tell us that before and then came back up to shake all the veterans hands Mr Biden had been expected to stay for the handshakes why didn't you tell us that before you didn't tell us that you you tried to dismiss it like it was nothing he seemed confused at points during the D-Day anniversary ceremony in France on June none of that was in the original don't believe the cheap fakes reporting Steve the entire cheap fake narrative and that is truly what it was it was this crafted artificial narrative that was created to try to spin this video and several others which I know we're going to talk about and it obviously all blew up on Thursday night but it wouldn't have if Joe Biden had even a c minus debate I mean it literally took a failing grade A just a brutally medically obvious debate to to to blow this completely uh out the window and and look the New York Times is not alone in how they framed these videos but they are obviously a very important voice as we've talked about and and why did this happen right why did they do this why did they go down this path and I think it's important to understand that there is a social penalty this this kind of intellectual blackmail that happens uh when I interviewed Olivia newsy for my book last year she had talked about how covering the Trump Administration there was no social penalty if you went after them if you reported things with the Biden Administration it's the opposite you have to have at least a little bit of spine to cover things in a way that you know is going to get you blowback from your inner circle whether it's within friends whether it's on social media on X and so few reporters are willing to do that so they're just more than happy to whether it's willful ignorance or whether it's sort of this this obvious bias but whatever the reason they are more than happy to go along with this narrative that is clearly false for anyone who isn't totally politically blinded by what's happening in front of their eyes not afraid of their reputation being hurt their credibility they already got away with so me many of these lies Russia gate being the best and most recent example they're like yeah I'm fine I I only win by criticizing Trump and defending President Biden so the second example is the juneth celebration at the White House on June 10th this is where Biden stood motionless and he stared blankly for a full minute as others sang and danced around him here's the sound bite yeah you can't the listening audience can't see it but that trust me that's exactly what happening and eventually George Floyd's brother um noticed his pause and wrapped his arms around him to help do we have it stand [Music] by he looks literally Frozen this deails perfectly with the New York Times reporting now that they've seen riger Morse in him that others or no it was Carl Bernstein Carl Bernstein reporting that some have seen him looking at R Morris so the times after that hit and it became a controversy said some of these videos are clearly manipulated to make him look old and Confused others cut out vital context to portray him in negative light this is known as a cheap fake and now that he's had the debate meltdown July second they refer back to this event June 10th on June 10th he appeared to freeze up at an early celebration of the juneth holiday I'll give you one more the G7 which happened Thursday June 13th at this event he wandered away from his fellow leaders during a skyd diving demonstration he appeared to say something to an officer packing a parachute off to the side and this is where the Georgia sorry the Italian Prime Minister Georgia Maloney walked over and touched his arm trying to pull him back toward the group well many called attention to this video and said where's he going what's he doing he's leaving all the action here you can see the Italian Prime Minister try to subtly redirect him by the way the paratrooper that he was going over towards wasn't looking at him wasn't making eye contact wasn't seeking his attention all the attention was on this one this one uh paratrooper and he did seem to get lost and not understand that's where his Focus was supposed to be the so the New York Times then June 21st said he wandered off during a meeting with other G7 leaders an image that the New York Post ran on its front page and then they say in defense of him he was G greting paratroopers like they're trying to say he didn't wander he was greeting paratroopers now July 2nd okay at one point Mr Biden appeared to wander off from the group of leaders but the image suggested he needed guidance from his host a senior European official who was present said that there had been a noticeable decline in Mr Biden's physical state since the previous fall and that the Europeans had been shocked by what they they saw where was all of that back on the June 21st reporting Stephen it went on from there they said they were shocked he appeared out of it said the official it was difficult to engage him in conversation while he was walking M Maloney and the other leaders were acutely sensitive to his physical condition discussing it privately amongst themselves they tried to avoid embarrassing him by showing slowing their own pace while walking with him when they worried he did not seem poised and cameras were around they closed ranks around and physically to Shield him while he collected himself said the official none of that appeared in the June first reporting which just defended him by saying yo conservatives he was greeting a paratrooper yeah the so there's two options for what happened here either they had they had all these quotes from these senior European officials and they just held them back which is obviously just a dereliction of Duty as a journalist or they went and then they got kind of re-reported it out and they said let's actually find out what he was like behind the scenes in these meetings again a total dereliction of Duty there is no good side here and that video that we played we should play that again because this is there was an amazing moment CBS News did a segment on these cheat fakes and they played this video and they said look at this this is misinformation this is outof context video and then it was brought to their attention that oh wait a second no this is the right video this is the one that we but it's so obviously painful and bad that they they assumed that this was the bad video no this was the version that was actually tweeted out by the campaign and as there're as oh look no no he's totally fine here no no he's he's obviously not it's it's so clear to anyone and and again I mean all of this reframing and this kind of narrative bias that we see it is not journalists suddenly learning on Thursday night that Joe Biden has a major serious problem here no what happened is they've saw that they can no longer have Joe Biden at the top of the ticket and beat Donald Trump there is a larger plan at play now I don't think it was coordinated I think that that's very clear this has been a mess this has just been a debacle in the last seven days too no one knows what to do there's no coordination happening but they what's at the core of what's Happening Here from the corporate media is that they have clearly made a decision that it's all hands on deck to push Joe Biden out because he cannot beat Donald Trump that's that's what's at really at the base here we've got to save democracy this is our way of doing it yes what they well we were you know Slack J watching that debate thinking oh my God it's even worse than we knew they were watching it thinking The Jig Is up we can no longer we we've known what everybody's known but we can we no longer have plausible deniability so we have no choice but to push him make him walk the plank that's it it's done we cannot win with this guy that's all they cared about we can't win with him now because people have seen what we saw yes yeah I think that that is in a different time this this presidency of Jo Biden would have been covered in a very different way and and even potentially if Donald Trump let's say decided not to run in 2024 potentially the Joe Biden presidency would be covered very differently but there has been such a a whiplash that we've seen from a media perspective in how President Biden was covered three Thursday night and that debacle and in in and the debate stage and what's happened since then there whether they've decided to just open their notebook and publish the things that they had that they were afraid to publish they were essentially blackmailed from publishing before you know not not literal blackmail but essentially like social blackmail from from the Democratic establishment whatever the reason that has completely changed now and it is all open season on covering Joe Biden in an honest way that's very important this is not like let's make up some things and get them out no now let's be honest about the real situation that's that's facing America uh because that is this is a president this is not just a a political candidate this is what he's been like for a very long long time certainly before Thursday night so you and I both know that if the Democrats push him out and replace him with anyone the media will once again become fawning absolutely fawning over whomever they choose but the interesting question is what if they don't push him out what if he doesn't go which I don't think is likely I mean we talked about that but let's say he doesn't go what does the media do then right between now and November well a couple things to point out that that have all been uh things that I found from our show so I will say first of all Chris stalt uh was great when he came on we we did a segment early on this was uh back in February uh about what would happen if if Joe Biden stepped aside whether it was now whether it was in the primary process whether it was at the convention and there is a scenario even after the convention for about a three-week period where he could step aside and the DNC picks the nominee so so there are lots of chances for them to do it they got a long Runway obviously I think they would like to get this done immediately it looks like Joe Biden's digging in his heels but the media will be relentless they will not just give into this the polls are not going to change this is only going to get worse they have until kind of mid-september to get rid of them so so that's the first thing that I would say you know the other thing that that is that I think that that's important is is something that Steve Bannon brought up uh this was before he went to jail now this week uh when he was on our show on Friday and I think that the media has to understand that it's not they're not going to just get away with suddenly KLA Harris is in the chair or suddenly oh it's a contested convention let's just talk about how great this is this is just a show of democracy no the Republicans are going to make a point that this was done to the American people this was a lie that was perpetrated by the Democratic establishment and the media to kind of work in coordination and this is not a solution whether it's K Harris whether it's anyone else this is not a a proper solution for for this problem that they have created themselves so so I think that the media is going to try with all their might to get rid of Biden and they will try for months if it if if that's what it takes and then they will certainly try to bypass all you know kind of the Republican talking points that this is just great for America this is really just democracy at work here I think that they're going to try that but that I don't think it's going to work necessarily that's right and and it'll be up to people like us to remind the American voters that they've been intentionally misled that and and by the way that whoever they nominate if it's not Joe Biden will not have been vetted this person will not be will have been vetted the way we properly vet candidates in today's day and age you know I mean look at R fkj even now some shocking news is breaking about him because they're just now starting to get mildly interested in him he ate a goat and posed with its carcass I don't know some other stuff of his ex-wife or his wife who committed suicide courtesy of Moren who's been doing a great job cahan who was also on our show last week but in any event they're they have an obligation uh as members of the media to to vet these candidates and it's very late in the game to be starting up a new with a new name that we don't know that well even if it's like Michelle Obama do you think we're going to suddenly get stories from the mainstream media the New York Times it's up the world the politicos The Atlantics about Michelle Obama what was what's in her past we don't really know she was the first lady for eight years but you know she was focused on uh having kids you know eat healthy I mean we we've never really done that no that is not going to be the PO the point of the media over that the the following stretch year no there is there is in their mind much bigger issues at play when it comes to stopping Donald Trump yeah no it's it's like Jesus coming back and they them saying well his hair's a little long no that's not going to happen they they will be treating whoever it is especially Michelle Obama as the Savior that's how they the media will view said person but we have to get past what Joe Biden does first as of today he's hanging in there we'll see whether he has a July 4th patriotic gift for the country Steve CRA hour thank you my friend great to see you good seeing you we'll watch it yeah to be continued