The Washington Post has made a profound transition from unrelenting hostility towards President Trump to warm hospitality for President Biden in its coverage of the White House. Look no further than White House reporter Matt Viser, who seems to be signaling that democracy now thrives with ease.
Viser advertised a cover story about Biden’s normalcy on Thursday with this sticky tweet:
His tweets read like fortune cookies. It appears in front of cameras 30 minutes a day, planned and planned and little space for the unwritten or unusual. A week later, my look at Biden’s 9-5 presidency: “It’s just a guy who gets up and does his job.” https://t.co/U1otsZma7W
– Matt Viser (@mviser) January 28, 2021
How … helpful. Viser quotes Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) as saying how everything is so normal:
Biden’s first full week of office has shown an almost shocking departure from the chaotic style of his predecessor and opened the first window into a term whose task it is not only to redesign the White House in Biden’s image, but also to redesign the presidency itself towards it bring what he sees his rightful way.
The result so far is a 9-5 presidency – a narrowly-defined surge of activity recorded over the past few months as Biden tries to avoid heated conflict and stick to his plan to bring the political temperature to such a high level Americans can switch off.
“I’ve heard from more people in the past few days how nice it is to turn on the TV and not have to find out the latest drama of the day,” said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). “It looks a lot like George W. Bush’s White House – uneventful. It is nice. . . . It’s just a guy who gets up and does his job. “
Viser also quoted another Democrat, Rep. Jim Clyburn, who has often been credited with reversing Biden’s 2020 slip campaign:
“Biden knows what it is like to have a life,” said James E. Clyburn (DS.C.), a close ally. “We never got a break from Trump because he didn’t want anyone to take a break – maybe because he was thinking of something other than him. He always had to be in your face, be present, didn’t want anyone with a headline but him. Biden doesn’t need that. “
The headline was “Biden is adopting order and routine in his first week. How will that fit into this moment of crisis?”
It is now a plus that Biden seldom appears in front of the press, often carefully written, and not answering questions. (Reporters like this one? They do when they vote for him. They also like to “live a life” without tweeting overnight.) Biden, the president, is like Biden, the candidate who is here or because hidden in the house with a zoom call:
He held several events a week, often carefully written with a teleprompter to encourage the famous-meandering politician to keep up to date. He answered half a dozen questions from reporters about once a week. Rarely, if ever, did he try to become an omnipresent force.
Jill Biden often accused her husband of promising that under a Biden administration, Americans could read the papers without getting upset.
How’s that for a Washington Post goal? Keep the Americans happy and take them out. Nowhere in this story has an anonymous “senior administrator” said anything worrying about the President. Let’s say Viser isn’t going to turn to this tactic very much. And we all can remember the lame “half-dozen questions from reporters” who often asked to rate how awful Trump was.
PS: Guess who loves that front page patty cake game? Dan Rather, whom Viser happily retweeted with a copy of his story:
They often read like fortune cookies
“With unity we can do great things,” it says in one
“I know times are tough, but help is on the way,” read another
“We will get this virus under control,” he wrote on Thursday, followed by: “We will get through this together” https://t.co/U1otsZma7W https://t.co/XRcO7Ia9sS
– Matt Viser (@mviser) January 29, 2021
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