The White House abruptly cut the feed of President Joe Biden's Monday briefing on wildfires with federal and Idaho state officials. For some reason, local media outlets that were covering Biden’s visit at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) conveniently failed to mention what happened.
The White House cut the feed just as Biden was going off script to ask a question to George Geissler of the National Association of State Foresters. That wasn't the first time the White House prevented the general public from hearing Biden. But apparently to the Idaho Statesman, Idaho Press, and other local news outlets, it wasn’t important enough to mention.
Clark Corbin from the Idaho Capital Sun wrote that the White House only streamed about 30 minutes of live footage during Biden’s visit, completely disregarding that Biden was going off script when the feed was suddenly cut. Corbin made it seem like the White House only planned to stream a short amount of Biden’s visit at NIFC.
The media fails kept coming throughout the day.
Idaho Statesman reporter Kyle Land misled the public about the size of the crowd gathered to protest Biden’s Boise visit. While waiting for Biden to land, close to 2,000 Biden protesters lined the streets with pro- Donald Trump flags, anti-vaccine mandate signs, and anti-Biden signs. Land tweeted, “The more I walk around the more 2,000 seems unlikely. Maybe a few hundred at most.”
Either Land attended a different protest from everyone else, was unaware of his surroundings, or was being dishonest.
Biden is well known for fumbling over his words, not forming complete sentences, and saying absurd things on air, which some are starting to speculate is causing the White House to censor the president. Even Biden seems to acknowledge that someone, other than himself, is in charge of what he’s supposed to say and how he’s supposed to interact with others.
For now, Idaho residents are left wondering why there’s so much mystery around White House interventions — and why the media won’t do its job and investigate.
