Joe Biden was recently captured on camera, reprimanding a reporter while dodging a “completely valid” question on schools closing. Making the incident all the more interesting, a New York Times writer made a stunning statement about President Trump, just days before. Don’t miss this.
Joe Biden has a history of becoming agitated with one CBS News reporter in particular, and Friday proved no different when he quickly admonished the correspondent, according to The Blaze. While gathered with his running mate Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Biden once again proved he had no patience for the reporter, who dared to ask a timely question.
“In my Oval Office, mi casa, you casa,” Biden told Pelosi and Schumer in a video captured during the gathering. “I hope we’re going to spend a lot of time together,” he added just before the press pool was required to leave.
“Let’s go guys, let’s go,” a Biden aide is heard repeatedly demanding as the press pool was escorted out of the room. Undeterred, CBS reporter Bo Erickson decided to calmly ask one parting question.
“Mr. Biden, the COVID task force said it’s safe for students to be in class. Are you going to be encouraging unions to cooperate more to bring kids back to classrooms, sir?” Erickson asked politely. It was immediately apparent that Biden didn’t appreciate the inquiry.
“Why are you the only guy that always shouts out questions?” Biden responded, dismissing the question before he and Pelosi then cackled at the reporter. Erickson shared a video of the encounter on Twitter, where many weren’t impressed with what they saw:
Asked Biden if he will encourage teacher unions to cooperate to get kids back in school because the COVID task force said it is safe to be in the classroom. He didn't answer.
“Why are you the only guy that always shouts out questions?” he said. pic.twitter.com/x2DsG5Fmgo
— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) November 20, 2020
“A completely valid and important question asked in a civil tone…deflected by Biden, who may not have understood it because it wasn’t screened by staff first,” Townhall columnist and radio host Derek Hunter noted. With New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announcing on Wednesday that all public schools would be closed starting Thursday, the question was extremely relevant.
A completely valid and important question asked in a civil tone…deflected by Biden, who may not have understood it because it wasn't screened by staff first. https://t.co/3FvmdaP9IO
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) November 21, 2020
De Blasio wasn’t alone either. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) ordered all high school and college classrooms to close for three weeks on Wednesday, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) ordered all public and private schools to close starting on Monday.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force stated that schools should remain open despite a recent surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield also supported the need for schools to remain open:
“[F]or kids K through 12, one of the safest places they can be…is to remain in school,” Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, said during a Thursday press conference. “And, it’s really important that — following the data, making sure we don’t make emotional decisions about what to close and what not to close,” he added.
“I’m here to say clearly: The data strongly supports that K-through-12 schools, as well as institutes of higher learning, really are not where we’re having our challenges,” Redfield explained. “There’s extensive data that we have — we’ve gathered over the last two to three months — to confirm that K-through- 12 schools can operate with face-to-face learning, and they can do it safely and they can do it responsibly.”
This wasn’t anything new, though. Redfield has been outspoken about the issue for months, saying in July that he would “absolutely” send his grandchildren back to school because he believes it’s safe. At that time, the CDC director also declared, “It is critically important for our public health to open schools this fall.”
Shockingly, a writer for the New York Times agreed with the assertion that schools should open, saying, “Trump was right” and “many democrats” were “wrong,” when it came to opening schools. In the op-ed published just days before Biden’s outburst over the question, NYT’s Nicholas Kristof pointed out that “children have suffered because many mayors and governors were too willing to close schools.”
“Trump has been demanding for months that schools reopen, and on that he seems to have been largely right. Schools, especially elementary schools, do not appear to have been major sources of coronavirus transmission, and remote learning is proving to be a catastrophe for many low-income children,” Kristof wrote.
“Yet America is shutting schools — New York City announced Wednesday that it was closing schools in the nation’s largest school district — even as it allows businesses like restaurants and bars to operate,” Kristof continued before asking, “What are our priorities?”
Kristof noted that many countries overseas closed restaurants and bars while insisting children remain in schools because “schools have not been linked to substantial transmission, and teachers and family members have not been shown to be at extra risk.” He also pointed out that children from underprivileged homes are hit hardest by school closures. “[T]he evidence has mounted of the human cost of school closures,” he wrote, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics:
“Children learn best when physically present in the classroom,” notes the American Academy of Pediatrics. “But children get much more than academics at school. They also learn social and emotional skills at school, get healthy meals and exercise, mental health support and other services that cannot be easily replicated online.”
It’s evident that the CBS News reporter’s question was relevant, but rather than answer, Biden chose to reprimand the press — something the left has often lambasted President Trump for doing. Biden seems to get a free pass, however, since this isn’t a first with him, where Erickson is concerned:
In October, the former vice president became agitated that Bo Erickson had the audacity to ask about the allegations swirling around the New York Post reporting about potential overseas business corruption with the Biden family that was allegedly discovered on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Biden called the reporting a “smear campaign,” and then besmirched Erickson’s ethics, “I know you’d ask it. I have no response, it’s another smear campaign, right up your alley, those are the questions you always ask.”
In October, when a reporter shouted a question about what flavor ice cream Biden was eating, he was happy to take the time to explain how he got one vanilla milkshake and one chocolate frozen treat. [Source: The Blaze]
So, just to recap, Joe Biden became obviously annoyed over a valid question, one that should be easily answered based on information provided by the Coronavirus Task Force, CDC, and even a writer from the left-leaning New York Times. Instead, he took a fed-up tone with the press after his party frequently condemned Trump for doing similar. He dodged an important question but gladly takes time to tell us all about the frozen treats he enjoys. And, this is who half the country wants in charge? Yeah, doesn’t make much sense to me, either.