Commentary

If President Biden’s recent practice of leaning-in to the microphone, widening his eyes, and dropping his voice to a whisper is an attempt to calm the press corps in the manner of a horse whisperer, he failed.

Comments on social media saw it as “creepy,” “bizarre,” “nuts,” and another “weirder than Kamala’s constant laugh.”  One twitterer joked, “Joe Biden’s earpiece whispers and he whispers back.”

His most recent use of whispering came during the East Room press conference that followed his outside appearance with a bipartisan group of senators who have been working to cobble together an infrastructure bill.

Below the headline, “Biden rebuts doubts, wins bet on bipartisanship,” it was obvious that Associated Press “journalist” Jonathan Lemire was taken-in by Biden’s phony pitch for bipartisanship.

“Biden, the Washington careerist schooled in the ways of compromise, stood in front of the White House, flanked by Democrats and Republicans alike, claiming a bipartisan deal had been struck on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package,” Lemire wrote.

“Biden had campaigned on his ability to get deals done across the aisle, and Thursday’s announcement was an undeniable victory, one that may give nervous Democrats cover as they likely will be asked to support the rest of the president’s agenda on a party-line basis,” said Lemire.

Not so fast.  It wasn’t until paragraph eight that Lemire conceded that the president’s promise to sign the bipartisan deal was dependent on an agreement on a $4 trillion reconciliation bill.  That’s the bill that would contain so-called “human” infrastructure investments involving sweeping reforms in housing, child care and efforts to combat climate change.

Whispering aside, Republicans felt they were stabbed in the back. In the minutes it took for Biden to make his appreciative remarks about the bipartisanship deal on the White House driveway to the East Room press conference, he indicated that he wouldn’t sign it unless the GOP passes the broader bill.

After a flurry of comments from Republicans, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, Biden was forced to walk back his statement saying that his East Room comment “created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat, which was certainly not my intent.”  It most certainly was a threat.

His walk-back brought a reminder to the president from Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she’s the boss. “Let me be clear on this: We will not take up a bill in the House until the Senate passes the bipartisan bill and a reconciliation bill.  There ain’t gonna be no bipartisan bill unless we have a reconciliation bill.  Plain and simple.”

Don’t you just love it.  You know that Bernie Sanders and the Mob are controlling the strings.

But keep on whispering, Prez.  I’m sure you’re impressing those G-7 leaders with your “not Trump” leadership style.

Now, more than ever, may God continue to bless the United States of America.