It can be hard to tell if Robert Costa is CBS’s campaigns and elections correspondent or a paid spokesman for Biden 2024 because on CBS Saturday Morning, Costa sat down with The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer where the two marveled over Biden having supposedly “accomplished many important things” and that people do not remember how “dark” it was when Biden took office.
During a voiceover, Costa declared, “Franklin Foer's book, The Last Politician, pulls back the curtain on a president he reveals as complicated, and defined by a life of politics and ambition, including to be seen as an historic, progressive president. Like Franklin Roosevelt.”
After Costa asked him if he thought the comparison was “credible,” Foer didn’t explicitly say yes, but implied that it was, “Well, FDR was the president who served four terms, presided over a world war and who shaped the American state in decisive ways that we still live with and, I think, Biden has accomplished many important things. But I think that his reputation will be so much more weighty than I think the public attributes it now.”
For Costa, one of those things was the pandemic. Almost having a Chris Matthews moment, he claimed, “Foer, a staff writer at The Atlantic, writes in depth about President Biden confronting crisis from the start, beginning with the pandemic… It almost gives you a chill and you go back and watch president Biden's inaugural speech and you see so many people wearing face coverings.”
Foer gave credence to the idea, “Yes, what we don't remember about the earliest days of the Biden presidency is how dark they were.”
CBS really needs to make up its mind: did Joe Biden fix COVID or is COVID still worth freaking out over? Of course, the country was already on its way out of the pandemic in January 2021, Biden just happened to be the guy in office at the time.
This segment was sponsored by Progressive.
Here is a transcript for the September 9 show:
CBS Saturday Morning
9/9/2023
8:19 AM ET
ROBERT COSTA: Franklin Foer's book, The Last Politician, pulls back the curtain on a president he reveals as complicated, and defined by a life of politics and ambition, including to be seen as an historic, progressive president. Like Franklin Roosevelt.
When President Biden links himself to FDR, do you find it credible?
FRANKLIN FOER: Well, FDR was the president who served four terms, presided over a world war and who shaped the American state in decisive ways that we still live with and, I think, Biden has accomplished many important things. But I think that his reputation will be so much more weighty than I think the public attributes it now.
COSTA: Foer, a staff writer at The Atlantic, writes in depth about President Biden confronting crisis from the start, beginning with the pandemic.
JOE BIDEN: We're in a national emergency and it's time we treat it like one.
COSTA: It almost gives you a chill and you go back and watch president Biden's inaugural speech and you see so many people wearing face coverings.
FOER: Yes, what we don't remember about the earliest days of the Biden presidency is how dark they were.
