“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” – George Orwell, 1984
On Super Tuesday this year, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough took to the airwaves with a full-throated endorsement of Joe Biden’s fitness for office.
Scarborough looked the camera square in the eye and emphatically said, “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.” (Full video below).
Pressure mounted on the President after Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report in which Biden was described as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” While Hur found some indication of wrongdoing in Biden’s handling of classified documents, he concluded “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
In the wake of Hur’s report, media platformed a litany of Biden surrogates repeating the talking point that “behind closed doors” Biden was strong, vigorous, and sharp as the proverbial tack. Hur, meanwhile, was maligned for alleged bias and “crossing the line.” The report faded away.
In the weeks and months leading up to last Thursday’s debate, critics of Joe Biden raised alarm over his fitness for office, pointing to a series of gaffes, photos, and videos which suggested the President was often confused by his surroundings.
In each instance, Biden’s defenders in the media struck back. They argued that conservative sources were doctoring audio, images, and video to mislead the public into believing Biden lacked the mental faculties to be president. “Cheap fakes,” they said.
Then Thursday’s debate happened. And for a brief moment, the media could no longer hide what was plainly before the eyes of some 48 million Americans who tuned in.
A CBS News/YouGov poll found that 72 percent of registered voters do not believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president after the debate. Notably, this perception was held by a strong majority even prior to the debate.
Scarborough said of the President’s debate performance:
“He spent much of the night with his mouth agape and his eyes darting back and forth,” the anchor said. “He couldn’t fact-check anything Donald Trump said. He missed one layup after another after another.”
Scarborough concluded that now “is the last chance for Democrats to decide whether this man we’ve known and loved for a very long time is up to the task of running for president of the United States.”
The New York Times editorial board called on Biden to drop out of the race “to serve his country.”
The sudden “Eureka!” moment from the press after the debate is a load, of…well…malarkey. Basically, a whole lot of professional “journalists” have been running a gaslighting campaign in favor of a candidate for the highest office in the land.
You can’t tell people to trust you over their own eyes for months, then flip the switch and expect that trust to continue.
The “revelation” of Biden’s declining mental state reminds me a lot of the Hunter Biden laptop story. The media kept telling everyone it was “fake news” until they could no longer do it with a straight face. Then it became “look what we’ve discovered! You know, that thing you’ve been saying all along.”
In 1984, Winston Smith writes that “freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four.” By the end of the novel, Smith is broken to accept the false statement that “2+2=5.”
It will be interesting in the coming weeks to see if the media continues the concession that 2+2=4, or if they revert back to asking people to deny their eyes and ears.
By Saturday, Joe Scarborough had already reversed course.
