AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
Anxious to position the resurgent Republican Party in the House as negative, hyper-partisan, and divisive, the corporate media is already telegraphing its news narrative for the opening of the new Congress. With a near-laughable display of unanimity in its reporting – one that is beginning to rival the media’s liturgical use of “the walls are closing in” back when it was assuring the nation that President Donald Tump’s removal from office was imminent – news outlets that two years ago were lauding Joe Biden’s assertion that he would be the “most progressive” president in history are now celebrating Biden’s reinvention of himself as a great centrist icon and a hands-across-the-aisle political conciliator.
Dutifully echoing the party-line briefings of White House and Democratic Party operatives the Capitol class’s favorite house organs are hard at work. Axios is declaring “Biden’s ‘24 pivot,” while the Washington Post praises Biden’s “Bipartisan bridge, border tour” as “Biden starts to hone his 2024 pitch.” MSNBC is incredibly claiming that “Joe Biden has racked up more bipartisan victories than any president of either party in a generation.” CNN is similarly touting Biden’s plans for “bipartisan cooperation,” and Politico is reporting that the White House is “aimed at a more centrist audience.”
Accordingly, AMAC Newsline is bringing our readers the first of what will become a series of ‘Narrative Alerts’ about the latest propaganda collusions between the administration and its dutiful journalists-collaborators. This report focuses on the D.C. echo chamber’s reinvention of the newly bipartisan Biden’s stand on the border security issue, where, for the better part of two years, every action Biden took was clearly designed to increase, not decrease, illegal immigration.
Throughout his 2020 campaign, Biden promised a completely open southern border, spurring hundreds of thousands to make the dangerous journey north. Once in office, Biden issued dozens of executive orders on immigration, doing everything from stopping construction of the border wall to suspending Trump’s highly successful “Remain in Mexico” policy. Biden also proposed cutting funding for border security and fought to end the use of Title 42 to quickly expel migrants, which border officials warned would overwhelm already strained border security forces.
Unsurprisingly, the number of illegal crossings soon swelled to record highs. Along with the migrants came a surge in human trafficking, fentanyl, and other deadly drugs. Meanwhile, Biden’s top lieutenants dismissed the disaster, claiming the border was “secure.” Biden himself refused to acknowledge that there was any issue at the border, ignoring calls for him to go and see the catastrophe for himself.
He was aided in this effort by a virtual news blackout on the humanitarian disaster his policies created, even as border communities and law enforcement personnel begged for assistance and a change in policy.
Then, suddenly, just as House Republicans were wrapping up their speakership battle earlier this month, the White House decided that the border was indeed a problem. Biden delivered a rare public address from the Roosevelt Room announcing a “revised” border strategy, which in fact was a thinly disguised amnesty program. The president then made a short trip to El Paso for a brief photo op along a section of border wall, pretending that his administration was now taking the issue seriously even as his actions belied the new narrative.
Axios immediately touted Biden’s “centrist push on immigration,” while congressional Democrats – who, like Biden, had just spent the last two years actively exacerbating the crisis – lauded the president for his “leadership.”
What the glowing media reviews of Biden’s border “shift” failed to mention, however, was that it was Biden’s open-borders policies that created the crisis in the first place, and that his proposed “new” policies will in fact make the problem worse. Even in Biden’s White House address this month, which was supposed to be his “pivot” moment on immigration, he announced that the United States will accept an additional 30,000 migrants per month from four specific Latin American countries – hardly a deterrent on more illegal crossings.
By feigning interest in working across the aisle on immigration while continuing to push virtually the same slate of far-left policies, the Biden administration appears to be setting the stage to blame the House Republican majority for the crisis. After creating the narrative that Biden now cares about border security (thanks to a boost from their friends in the mainstream media) the White House will advance mass-amnesty plans under the guise of border security and claim that Republicans stymied progress.
A similar effort is underway in a number of other policy areas that are expected to drive contentious policy battles with the House GOP. Earlier this month, Biden made an appearance in Covington, Kentucky, alongside high-profile Republican figures, including Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Ohio Senator Rob Portman, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, to announce funding for an upgrade of the Brent Spence Bridge, a major thoroughfare connecting Cincinnati to Kentucky. Biden again made vague references to bipartisanship, emphasizing the need to find “common ground.”
However, Biden’s pining for “common ground” is made meaningless by the fact that his administration has targeted parents who spoke up at school board meetings, discharged military personnel who declined the COVID vaccine, and repeatedly weaponized the federal government to target their political opponents. At every turn, Biden has eschewed “common ground” in favor of radicalism and division. There is no reason to believe he will stop now.
The next big moment for Biden’s attempted bipartisan pivot will be his upcoming State of the Union Address on February 7th. In the speech, we can expect more platitudes about the need to “work together” and find “common ground,” followed by more vapid media proclamations about Biden’s bipartisan bona fides. But if Biden’s stubbornly low approval ratings are any indication, most Americans won’t buy it.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_.
