“Biden does nothing at 9 a.m.” is a curious way to reassure the nation during a brand-new banking crisis, but that’s exactly what former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said to MSNBC viewers on Monday.
Regarding President Joe Biden’s emergency address to the nation at 9 o’clock sharp Monday morning, Psaki said, “President Biden does nothing at 9 a.m.… The fact that he’s [giving a speech about the bank failure] at 9 a.m. speaks to how vital the White House recognizes it is.”
It also speaks well to the energetic effects of Adderall or whatever it is Dr. Feelgood seems to give Biden a shot of before his public engagements.
Here’s the clip, courtesy of Greg Price:
Psaki: “President Biden does nothing at 9 AM… The fact that he [giving a speech about the bank failure] at 9 AM speaks to how vital the White House recognizes it is.”
pic.twitter.com/mZxMAsUW9j— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 13, 2023
Price was also sharp enough to remember this gem from Biden’s first month in office, in February of 2021. “Unlike his most recent predecessors,” Kevin Liptak reported for CNN way back when, “night owls who spent the dark hours reading briefing materials (President Barack Obama) or watching television (President Donald Trump) – Biden is more of an early-to-bed type.”
The just-sworn-in-POTUS takes “meetings and phone calls from the Oval Office starting just after 9 a.m.,” according to Liptak, meshing nicely with Psaki’s assertion about Biden’s relaxed morning routine. He’s back in the White House residential quarters no later than 7 a.m., followed by that early bedtime.
The old guy needs his rest, you know.
Before I stumbled across Psaki’s comments, I’d only read the text of Biden’s prepared remarks. Sometimes, to really understand what’s going on, you’ve got to watch the video, too. If Biden getting ready for the cameras by 9 a.m. shows how vital the banking crisis is, it’s fair to ask how vital the president is.
With that in mind, here is Biden’s entire statement, unedited and without commentary.
Watching him operate that door wasn’t easy. Neither was watching his dull-eyed, uninflected reading off of the teleprompter.
The words Biden spoke were largely reassuring.
“Americans can rest assured that our banking system is safe. Your deposits are safe. Let me also assure you, we will not stop at this. We’ll do whatever is needed,” he said. “No losses will be borne by the taxpayers.”
“Because of the actions that our regulators already taken, every American should feel confident that their deposits will be there if and when they need them,” he added. Even better, if, like me, you’re tired of our Zero Consequences nomenklatura, “the management of these banks will be fired. If the bank is taken over by FDIC, the people running the bank should not work there anymore.”
“Third, investors in the banks will not be protected. They knowingly took a risk, and when the risk didn’t pay off, investors lose their money. That’s how capitalism works. And fourth, are important questions of how these banks got into the circumstance in the first place. We must get the full accounting of what happened and why those responsible can be held accountable.”
The words were all well and good as written. But the man delivering them clearly wasn’t up to the job of just working a door at 9 a.m., much less standing up to the crooks and screwups who seem to be in charge of everything important.
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