Former Jill Biden Press Aide on Fox: Biden Team Sees the Press as a 'Threat' and 'Hazard'!

Tim Graham
August 7th, 2023 4:17 PM

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On the Fox News Channel show MediaBuzz on Sunday, host Howard Kurtz lamented that President Biden rarely appears before cameras, and former Jill Biden press aide Michael LaRosa departed from the Democrat script and lamented that Team Biden lives "in a bunker mentality" and treat the press "as a threat, as a hazard, and not as an opportunity." 

Kurtz began the segment by raising a Tyler Pager Washington Post story on how Barack Obama had lunch with Biden and warned him that Donald Trump's strengths -- "including an intensely loyal following, a Trump-friendly conservative media ecosystem and a polarized country" — could make 2024 a tough race.

This is how anonymous sources are used by the Post when the Democrats are in power -- for lunch chats between Democrats. 

HOWARD KURTZ: But in general, I'm always just so taken by the fact that the current president of the United States operates in such a low key manner. We don't hear from him on weekends. He often has statements put out where he could go in front of the cameras. What's up with that? 

MICHAEL LaROSA:  I do – I think it's a problem. I think they live in a bunker mentality often, they treat the press as a threat, as a hazard and not as an opportunity and President Trump used it, uses it the opposite way,

KURTZ: Yes. 

LaROSA: And that's beneficial to him, because he’s able to –  but it also has hurt him in the past too. The last three election cycles, independents have fled from Republicans because they just simply do not want that guy at the top of the ticket. 

KURTZ: Right, but doesn't it hurt Biden not to be seen as much, is the press really a threat? Most of the people think the press is on Biden’s side! 

LaROSA:  I think Joe Biden is his best advocate and is always at his best when he's sort of unscripted, uncoached, unrehearsed, and is the authentic human being that many people think he is. 

Obviously, no one on the current Biden team thinks he's at his best without a script and a coach. Later, LaRosa traveled back to the flack zone, selling Biden's truckload of accomplishments: 

LaROSA:  I agree with Susan [Ferrecchio] that he needs to be able to compete visually and to show energy, but where he is strikingly different than the last president is he's accomplished more than any other president in his first term than any president has done in eight years. You may disagree with that but he's been one of the most effective presidents we've had since Lyndon Johnson, in terms of getting things done and if it takes an 80-year-old to do that, I’ll take that any day of the week. 

We can guess Biden's handlers know the president is a gaffe machine, even in replies to softball questions. He can also turn angry and nasty at questions he doesn't like, even from supportive outlets, so that's a reason to steer clear. 

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