Media Scrambles to Cover for Joe Biden After Comments on Taiwan

Ryan DeLarme,

May 23rd, 2022

Joe Biden, who has been called a “danger to international peace and global stability”, made a bold statement on Monday when he told reporters at a press conference in Tokyo that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan.

Q: "Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan?"

BIDEN: "Yes, that's the commitment we made."

Biden's staff immediately walked back these comments. pic.twitter.com/AhPC3czPOl

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 23, 2022

In typical fashion, the President’s staffers had to walk back the claim.  A White House official said Biden’s comments did not reflect a policy shift, according to AP.

President Joe Biden said the United States would intervene militarily if China were to invade the island nation. A White House official said Biden’s comments did not reflect a decades-old policy shift. https://t.co/TRYhB0AYxo

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 23, 2022

What is particularly interesting are the mainstream media’s scrambling attempts to cover for the leader of the free world. 

Immediately after the conference, the Associated Press ran a puff piece claiming that Joe Biden was “willing to get involved militarily”, and that his remarks were the “ the most forceful presidential statements in support of Taiwan’s self-governing in decades.” This was done in what appeared to be an attempt to not only cover for the gaffe-prone President but to depict him as strong and resolute rather than increasingly obvious cognitive decline.

Bloomberg took a different approach. Rather than attempting to portray Biden as a strong leader and doubling down on the potentially catastrophic comments, Bloomberg claims that he simply “misspoke”. While damage control being done by Bloomberg is a far-cry AP’s “Forceful presidential statement” angle, it does seem to be a bit closer to the truth.

Not surprisingly, China was deeply unimpressed, suggesting that the US was playing with fire. Some in Washington were also concerned.

“We should be clear about what our policy is,” said China-relations expert Bonnie Glaser, the director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund, a Washington-based think tank.

“When it is not clear, that confusion ends up undermining reassurances to our allies and partners and potentially erodes deterrence in the Taiwan Strait.”