Is Biden Being “Controlled”? (And So What If He Is?)
A recent poll founded by The Trafalgar Group found that roughly fifty-six percent of Americans believe “others are directing policy and agenda” regarding the Biden Administration. This includes nearly thirty-two percent of Democrats, fifty-eight percent of independents, and eighty-four percent of Republicans.
This is another common claim against Joe Biden, going all the way back to the campaign. According to some, Joe Biden is actually an old dementia-ridden man (actually he’s an old stroke victim who had the part of his brain that helps with verbal communication damaged and it’s nothing short of a miracle he can even speak — but details, details) who’s not even running the White House. Instead, some shadowy force — usually Vice President Kamala Harris (although one popular theory that has since died down is that he’s controlled by China) — is the person actually running the show.
Usually, the only evidence they have for this claim is his gaffes. As I’ve talked about before, Joe Biden’s gaffes have been part of his character going back decades, and his supporters are well aware of his flawed communication skills.
As it stands, there is no evidence that anyone other than Joe Biden is in control of the White House. Insider reports show more a Joe Biden that wants to keep to himself while in the Oval Office as oppose to someone who doesn’t actually run the government. It was a minor scandal when it took until 3/25/2021 for Biden to appear at a Press Conference, but the reason why it took so long was because Biden spent every moment of his administration before then trying to lead the country through the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden is simply not one for the spotlight, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
If you ask me, this has a lot to do with the fact that we’re just not used to a President not wanting to spend all day every day in front of the media. Donald Trump loved nothing more than going in front of a massive crowd — whether it be in a rally or on right-wing media — and running his mouth. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had media families — a practice dating back to Theodore Roosevelt — and Americans would get to see the first family love and grow as people while serving this nation. As Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs notes while looking back at the Clinton era:
One of the first things I remember learning about U.S. politics, when I was about seven years old, was that Bill Clinton had a cat named Socks and a dog named Buddy. I am fairly sure they told us about Socks in school, long before we learned about welfare reform and the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.
Joe Biden, to put it simply, is not interested in making a show about being Presidents. He’s just interested in running the country to the best of his ability. Joe Biden is interested in bringing us back to those days when being President was a job, not a chance to showoff your great family. This drives the media crazy, and they then assume that the only reason Joe Biden wouldn’t want to be around him is because he has nothing to say — not because they aren’t worth talking to.
If it is true that Joe Biden really is nothing more than a puppet for Kamala Harris, why has no elected-Republican said that after meeting with him? Instead, we constantly get reports of Joe Biden being a nice guy who understands policy and just wants the country to go the right direction. In fact, they seem to think the biggest issue with Vice President Harris is that she’s not doing enough — hence why it has been a big scandal that she has not gone to the border despite the Republicans making up a border crisis.
With that said, it is interesting to note that, under Biden, the news has moved from what The President is doing to what The Administration is doing. Under Donald Trump, it seemed like the President tried to make himself the center of everything (hence Trump’s constant bragging about how he knew more than everyone else). Under Biden, The Administration is a story of people — some of whom have grassroots backgrounds — who are trying one-by-one to shape the world.
However, let’s give this hypothesis the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume that Joe Biden really is sitting in the White House all day eating pudding — an honorable job I would be envious of — while Kamala Harris or some other shadowy group really runs the show. So what?
I don’t care if it’s Joe Biden giving the policies or if he’s actually just taking orders from this or that person when it comes to policies, I care about the policies. Joe Biden has smart people around him, he intentionally picked smart people to lead his administration, because Joe Biden who knows that he doesn’t know everything. (He might even, in the words of the recently deceased Donald Rumsfeld, have some unknown unknowns — things he doesn’t even know he doesn’t know.) Joe Biden has done this because he is a humble man who knows he can benefit from the wisdom and knowledge of others, and I see that as no vice nor flaw.
Basically, Biden is being attacked by the media for being humble — that’s where we are at in 2021.
