The Associated Press on Saturday published an uncharacteristically critical report about President Joe Biden and his administration, discussing how he answered questions related to claims the White House made about various national security issues that arose recently. The wire service seemed to take issue with the lack of answers when it comes to supporting the claims they made about the situations in Ukraine and Syria.
The AP reported:
When President Biden’s administration was asked for evidence to back up dramatic claims about national security developments this past week, it demurred with a simple rejoinder: You’ll have to trust us on that.
No, they would not reveal what led them to say they knew that Russia was plotting a false flag operation as a pretext to invade Ukraine. No, they would not explain their confidence that civilian casualties were caused by a suicide bombing rather than U.S. special forces during a raid in Syria.
The article noted that the White House’s reaction was “particularly caustic” when its spokespeople intimated that members of the press were “buying into foreign propaganda” when they questioned the administration’s statements. “The lack of transparency strained already depleted reserves of credibility in Washington, a critical resource diminished over the decades by instances of lies, falsehoods and mistakes on everything from extramarital affairs to the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” the author wrote.
The report explained that recent exchanges between the White House and the press were “a sign of increased skepticism” of the administration on national security issues. This was made worse by the botched Afghanistan withdrawal and the president’s failure to anticipate the swift return of the Taliban to power.
“This administration has made statements in the past that have not proven accurate,” Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania told the AP. “Kabul wasn’t secure. The drone strike did kill civilians. The press is doing its job when it asks, ‘How do you know that?’”
One exchange occurred when White House press secretary Jen Psaki took questions from reporters on Air Force One about the U.S. special forces raid in Syria, which supposedly killed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe pointed out that there could be “peoples that are skeptical of the events that took place and what happened to the civilians.”
In response, Psaki asked if the reporter was intimating that “ISIS is providing accurate information” while the U.S. military is not. Rascoe responded, saying, “I mean, the U.S. has not always been straightforward about what happens with civilians.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price also got into it with a journalist at a State Department briefing on Thursday. U.S. officials had accused Russia of getting ready to stage a “false flag” operation and using it as a pretext to invade Ukraine. “The alleged scheme included a staged explosion and enlisting actors to portray people mourning the dead,” according to the AP.
“Where is the declassified information?” AP reporter Matthew Lee asked.
“I just delivered it,” Price responded.
“No, you made a series of allegations,” Lee responded.
Price countered, explaining that officials had to protect “sources and methods.”
After what the AP described as “a contentious back and forth,” the spokesman told reporters that if they wish to “find solace in information that the Russians are putting out, that is for [them] to do.”
This does not sound like the typical back-and-forth between White House officials and members of the press, does it? Normally, these interactions involve softball questions and a conspicuous lack of accountability.
But, as the Associated Press report indicates, the Biden administration seems to be taking the “take our word for it” approach when it comes to answering questions about foreign matters. Unfortunately for them, that particular Labrador won’t be retrieving any duck corpses.
What the Ned Prices and Jen Psakis of the world don’t seem to understand is that the American public stopped trusting their boss a long time ago. President Biden’s approval ratings have been in the crapper ever since he fouled up the Afghanistan withdrawal. Two recent polls reveal that people do not trust him as president.
A NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released in January showed that “the administration has a trust problem.” From the report:
More than 63 percent of respondents trust their doctors and 50 percent trust federal health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Food & Drug Administration.
But when asked who they trusted, only 31 percent chose Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease; and 16 percent chose Biden, according to the NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll.
Interestingly enough, the poll also showed that only 10 percent of respondents trust information reported by the news media. Who’d a thunk it?
A CNN poll conducted in December 2021 showed that only 34 percent of Americans believed Biden “is a leader you can trust.”
Ouch.
It is amazing that the White House would choose to avoid being transparent when the public clearly does not trust them to be truthful. Wouldn’t common sense dictate that this behavior would only contribute to that perception? Either this administration is woefully out of touch, or it simply does not care what Americans think. Regardless of the reason, this does not bode well for the Democrats in 2022.
