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In political coverage, and especially on cable news, every issue seems to be Nth degree polarized.
Either you argue that Donald Trump did an amazing job and Joe Biden does a horrible job, or you insist otherwise. Taking a more nuanced stance is often seen as foolish.
I’ve been saying for weeks that while President Biden acts aggressively to scale up the struggling vaccination program, President Trump deserves credit for creating Operation Warp Speed - and rarely gets any from the press. .
Apparently I was right, at least according to the New York Times.
Yes, the newspaper that spent four years investigating and often disparaging Trump has looked at vaccine progress and delivered, well, a fair and balanced report. Sharon LaFraniere’s story yesterday describes “a more mixed picture, in which the new administration has broadened and strengthened a vaccine production effort with key pieces in place” when Biden took over from Trump. “Both administrations deserve to be saluted, although neither wants to give much to the other.”
Biden’s main moves were to use the Defense Production Act to help Pfizer obtain the heavy machinery needed to expand a factory; push Johnson & Johnson “to force a key subcontractor into round-the-clock operations” and get rival company Merck to join forces with Pfizer. The president announced yesterday that the government will get an additional 100 million doses of J&J by the end of the year.
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But the Times also acknowledges that “Biden has benefited immensely from the waves of vaccine production that the Trump administration has unleashed. As Pfizer and Moderna found their manufacturing base, they were able to double and triple the output of their factories.”
And then there are the predictable precision shots as officials from both administrations shoot each other during fire development. In fact, as I finished this column, Trump released a statement, “I hope everyone remembers when they get the Covid-10 vaccine (often referred to as the China virus), than if I wasn’t not president, you wouldn’t “I won’t have this beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years at best, and I probably wouldn’t get it at all.” I get it.
While the audience is also polarized, I think there is more common sense in the country than inside the Beltway greenhouse.
The House gave final approval yesterday to Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion Covid aid program. Recent polls show broad support for the legislation, including about a third of Republicans, as well as for the president’s handling of the pandemic. But not a single Republican in Congress voted for the bill – and that’s what dominated coverage.
Biden is expected to give a prime-time speech tonight to tout his legislative victory – and a president who missed the opportunity would be guilty of political malpractice. But what Biden hasn’t done much this week – or none, for that matter – is reporters. Politico says it is planning a “media blitz” to sell the benefits of this massive package. There will be “less scripted events and private relationships with lawmakers, more press interactions and public appearances.”
But is it true? That would mean more than holding the late press conference which Jen Psaki says will take place this month. That would mean a series of interviews with journalists, not just one or two with sympathetic opinion leaders.
As for marketing the benefits of this long and complicated measure, that makes sense. Since the GOP has offloaded questionable agendas that satisfy leftist groups, Biden and his team are well advised to make sure Americans know how the money will help their bank accounts, schools, and education programs. vaccination.
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The cover will play partisan warfare; this is how Washington works. What you won’t see highlighted is that Biden adds $ 1,400 in stimulus checks to the $ 600 approved under Trump – and the higher total is exactly what the late-game former president insisted on. the fact that he wanted.
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