Media top headlines January 20
In media news today, Biden appears to lose his cool after a reporter’s question on divisiveness, NPR stands by mask report as three SCOTUS justices refute its claims, and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow says Biden used his long press conference to show Putin he has ‘stamina.’
TIME magazine commemorated President Biden's first year in office with a bleak forecast.
Marking one year since Biden's inauguration, TIME debuted its newest cover featuring a beleaguered president being rained on with a giant cloud hovering over the Oval Office.
BIDEN'S PRESS CONFERENCE GETS PANNED BY CRITICS: ‘TOTAL DISASTER’
Seen on the Resolute Desk are binders with labels that lead "inflation," "Putin," "Build Back Better," "voting rights" and "Trump 2024."
Behind Biden are several boxes of COVID rapid antigen tests his administration vowed to send to every household in the country.
TIME magazine cover revealed Jan. 20, 2022.
The cover story, titled "How the Biden Administration Lost Its Way," recapped a turbulent presidency.
"The fate of Biden’s social-spending and climate package is more uncertain than ever. The pandemic he promised to bring to heel rages out of control. Inflation is at a four-decade high, canceling out rising wages. The border is a mess. Violent crime continues to climb. His approval rating has sunk to the low 40s," TIME correspondents Molly Ball and Brian Bennett wrote.
"One year in, there’s a growing sense that the Biden presidency has lost its way. An Administration that pledged to restore competence and normalcy seems overmatched and reactive. Biden has been caught flat-footed by not one but two COVID-19 variants. He has repeatedly failed to close the deal with the Senate he boasted of mastering. The former chair of the foreign relations committee has presided over escalating tensions with Russia and China as well as a chaotic pullout from Afghanistan," the article listed Biden's woes.
U.S. President Joe Biden holds a formal news conference in the East Room of the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 19, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
TIME called the president a "shrinking figure," noting his few numbers of press conferences than his predecessors, voters questioning his capabilities and how Democrats privately acknowledge the public is "losing faith in his leadership."
"If Biden had one job coming in, it was to get the pandemic under control," the magazine wrote. He campaigned on a plan to tackle the virus with sound science and serious policy rather than Trump’s denial and quackery. Upon taking office, he installed an experienced team and got vaccines out to millions of Americans in a matter of months."
"But the pandemic response is now in a rough place. Omicron, while milder than previous variants, has sent cases surging. Hospitals are flooded, and businesses and schools struggle to remain open. In other countries, rapid tests have long been available free or cheap, but here they remain scarce and pricey. Data collection is a patchwork, leaving policymakers reliant on foreign sources for information," it continued.
(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The report went on to address Biden's hurdles on Capitol Hill and how despite his early success in passing COVID relief and the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the president failed to get his social spending bill over the finish line as well as voting reform legislation.
"Defenders say it’s unrealistic to expect too much with razor-thin congressional majorities, and complain that Biden hasn’t gotten enough credit for the things he’s accomplished… But Democrats fear that a harsh political backlash looms. The President’s approval rating, historically an indicator of how his party will perform in November, is the worst at this stage of any modern presidency besides Trump’s," Ball and Bennett wrote.
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"Voters hoped Biden would provide a sense of calm and steady leadership. But the reason he hasn’t been more visibly in charge is as much of an open secret as it is a taboo subject in Washington. The 79-year-old President has always been gaffe-prone, but in recent years his unsteadiness has become more pronounced. He tells stories that aren’t true, such as claiming to have been arrested in the civil rights movement, driven a tractor-trailer and intervened in Israel’s Six-Day War," they added."