The Biden campaign benefitted from some premium apple-polishing via ABC Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce, who delivered a dispatch from Pennsylvania that could make Pyongyang blush.
Watch this recap of President Biden’s campaign activities in the Keystone State, which may well be reportable to the Federal Elections Commission as an in-kind corporate contribution, as aired in its entirety on ABC World News Tonight on Wednesday, April 17th, 2024:
DAVID MUIR: We turn now to the race for the White House. President Biden in his home state of Pennsylvania again tonight, a state he’ll need to win this November. Biden aiming to draw the contrast between him and Donald Trump, who has spent much of this week in court. Here’s Mary Bruce.
MARY BRUCE: Tonight, fully aware that Donald Trump’s attention is focused on his criminal trial in New York, President Biden lasering in on battleground Pennsylvania. Speaking to steelworkers, Biden touting his work on the economy and taking swipes at his opponent.
JOE BIDEN: 492,000 new jobs so far in Pennsylvania alone. Under my predecessor, who’s busy right now, Pennsylvania lost 275,000 jobs. I mean, let’s look at the facts. On my watch, unemployment hasn’t been this low or this long in 50 years.
BRUCE: Biden’s leaning into his working class roots on a three-day swing through this must-win state. Meeting construction workers in Pittsburgh, visiting his childhood home in Scranton, where he told voters he understands them in a way Trump never will.
BIDEN: Donald Trump looks at the world differently than you and me. He wakes up in the morning in Mar-a-Lago thinking about himself.
BRUCE: The president, well aware that the polls are tightening and that he is gaining ground, has spent more time in Pennsylvania than any other battleground. By our count, visiting the state more than 30 times since taking office. David.
MUIR: Mary Bruce, who was in Pennsylvania, now back in Washington for us. Mary, thank you.
First, there is the framing. Anchor David Muir taking the time to lay down several key points: Biden needs to win PA, Biden trying to make the contrast between himself and former President Donald Trump, and Trump was in court. Muir tries to slip in some campaign disinformation by smearing PA as the “home state” of longtime Delaware resident Joe Biden who represented Delaware in the Senate for 36 years.
“Leaning into his working-class roots”, Bruce says, before casting Biden as First Empath. The “report” closes by noting that Biden is catching up in the polls and has visited the state many times.
But this dispatch was not without its own omissions.
Biden was actually met with protests in Pittsburgh, which included the chant of “hey hey, ho ho, Bidenomics has got to go”. This doesn’t appear to have been fit for publication at ABC News.
Protests outside Biden visit to US Steel building in Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/jBf07UbLXH
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) April 17, 2024
Bruce referenced Biden’s visit to his childhood home and showed B-reel of Biden walking alongside some local children. However, Bruce failed to show the beginning of that staged walk- and Biden weirdly (if not creepily) and very tightly holding these kids’ hands.
Biden takes no questions as he shuffles out of his childhood home with a group of children after a highly choreographed, scripted stop pic.twitter.com/fR86XqAizf
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 16, 2024
That was weird. And the report was weird, too. Weirdly sycophantic. Whatever that was, it sure wasn’t journalism.