Biden administration blind to bad optics on inflation, immigration: Joe Concha

By Joe Concha

This article is adapted from Joe Concha's video commentary.

When it comes to all-important optics in a digital world, the Biden White House appears to be as blind as a bat.

Exhibits A, B and C came this week after President Biden, along with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., shamelessly held a victory celebration for the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Which, you know, does nothing to reduce inflation. In fact, most studies show it will only help increase it.

And these leaders decided to hold this end zone dance on the same day the inflation report for the month of August was released, which showed inflation sitting at 8.3 percent. That’s still near a 40-year high.

So not only are Democrats blind to the optics, they’re also tone-deaf regarding the pain folks from the increased prices for food, gas, clothes, the things you buy on a daily basis. Even the media called it a trainwreck from an optics perspective.

But it didn’t end there. Here’s Exhibit B: Biden education secretary Miguel Cardona, maskless, speaking in a school gymnasium in Virginia this week.

In the stands, kids, still masked after it’s been proven time and time again, in study after study, that children wearing masks in schools is no different from not wearing masks in schools.

And yet here we are with Cardona, not even remotely appearing to grasp just how hypocritical an image like this looks to the American people.

US President Joe Biden speaks during an Inflation Reduction Act event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., US, on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. Biden is trying to capitalize on a sudden spate of positive economic news to turn Democrats' biggest political liability into an unlikely election-year selling point. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris gives remarks at United Against Hate Summit

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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the United Against Hate Summit, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona meets leaders from U.S. colleges and universities to discuss challenges students are facing after the Supreme Court decision to end the nationwide constitutional right to abortion, in the Vice President's ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, U.S., August 8, 2022. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)

And finally Exhibit C: Vice President Kamala Harris insisting the border is secure in an interview with Meet the Press.

Again, optics. Because every day we see reports showing scores of migrants just walking across the border into this country.

More than 2 million are projected to cross this year alone illegally, and those are the people we know about.

The lies and hypocrisy are really escalating quickly. But sometimes a picture can tell a thousand words, and optics always triumphs over spin.

Joe Concha is a FOX News contributor who joined the network in 2020. The author of several books, his latest is, "The Greatest Comeback Ever: Inside Trump's Big Beautiful Campaign" (Broadside Books, April 29, 2025).

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-administration-blind-bad-optics-inflation-immigration-joe-concha