The liberal media had a predictably sour reaction to President Trump’s speech to Congress, with journalists deploring it as a “polarizing,” “partisan” “festival of meanness.” Yet exactly one year ago, these same networks used Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union speech to dishonestly proclaim the obviously faltering 81-year-old was brimming with energy and ready for a second term.
As we all now know, last March’s post-SOTU happy talk was nothing but hot air. In July, Biden withdrew as a candidate after an embarrassing debate performance proved he was no longer up to the job.
Yet barely four months earlier, media spinners were busy painting an untrue picture of Biden’s capabilities. On March 6, 2024, the day before what would turn out to be Biden’s last State of the Union speech, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough crudely proclaimed: “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....If it weren’t the truth, I wouldn’t say it.”
The next night, after Biden yelled his way through a 67-minute long speech, journalists insisted that all was well. “This was a great night for Joe Biden,” ABC’s Jonathan Karl proclaimed. “That was a forceful and feisty State of the Union address!” anchor Geoff Bennett enthusiastically agreed on PBS.
“This seemed to me to be a speech designed first and foremost to show that Joe Biden has the stamina and the fire in the belly to go another four years,” CBS’s Nancy Cordes added during her network’s prime time coverage.
“It was like a punch in the face to every Republican in the room,” MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace gleefully pronounced. “Everybody knows that this was a great speech.”
“A lot of Democrats over the past few weeks have been panicking. I’ll bet the vast majority of them feel better tonight, because the President did hit hard,” correspondent Terry Moran insisted over on ABC.
“I think Joe Biden woke up this morning, had a cup of coffee and had his Wheaties. He was definitely there to fight,” MSNBC’s Joy Reid cheered.
Over on CNN, anchor Jake Tapper — now the co-author of a forthcoming book, Original Sin, about the “disastrous” “cover-up” of Biden’s “decline” — said he saw a “sharp” President Biden: “His presentation, his enunciation, of course, is not as clear as it once was a decade or two ago. His mind did seem fairly sharp.”
Co-host Dana Bash concurred. “He certainly met the moment....[Members of his party] wanted him to be a fighter and — boy — fight, did he deliver.”
The positive spin continued the next morning. CBS Mornings began by highlighting Biden’s fire — Gayle King headlined how “President Biden delivers a fiery State of the Union address,” just before co-host Tony Dokoupil touted a “pretty fired-up” Joe Biden.
“This was a feisty speech that, at times, felt more like a rowdy campaign event than a traditional State of the Union address,” ABC’s Mary Bruce argued the next day on Good Morning America. “The President trying to show voters he is ready for a fight and has what it takes to serve another four years.”
“President Biden delivering a mix of energy, humor, combativeness as well as plenty of ad-libs directed at his Republican critics,” praised White House correspondent Peter Alexander on Today. NBC’s Kristen Welker said “thrilled” Democrats were “breathing a sigh of relief...because the President was strong, because he was energetic, because he took on Donald Trump within the first four minutes of starting this speech.”
The gang on ABC’s The View eagerly promoted Biden’s supposed energy. “I thought he was fabulous. I pictured Trump just going nuts watching it,” co-host Joy Behar exclaimed.
“I have been saying for months and months and months that Joe Biden is old, yes, he’s slower of step, yes, but he is far from being incoherent, from having dementia, from not being in charge. Yesterday he showed he is engaged. He was impassioned. He was pissed off! ‘Scranton Joe’ showed up and fought,” thundered co-host Ana Navarro.
That was in March. Barely 100 days later, Biden’s inability was exposed for tens of millions of voters to see with their own eyes, a fatal blow to his already ailing campaign. Yet while Joe Biden has now finally shuffled off the political stage, his enablers in the liberal media continue to spin the news — as if they still have a shred of credibility.
For more examples from our flashback series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.