Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Joe Biden meets the press, and it goes predictably
HWASHINGTON OW is a Joe Biden press conference different from a Donald Trump press conference? Actually, the opposing candidates’ pressers have much in common, judging by Biden’s session with political reporters Tuesday, his first press conference in 89 days.
Most of the questions were about Trump.
Many of the questions were about Russia and a recent New York Times report, challenged as unverified by the White House, that Russia paid bounties to the Taliban for killing U.S. troops.
Somehow the most damning reports about Biden never came up.
The public learned nothing from Biden’s responses on the Trump/Russia/ Taliban story. The press didn’t even learn what Biden would do about what Trump might have done, had he been briefed. (Yes, two reporters couched their questions to Biden about Trump and Russia by saying “if ” the stories were true.)
The exercise didn’t exactly make my profession seem fair or remotely interested in any story that does not confirm the pack’s biases.
Last month saw the release of a handwritten note by fired FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok on a Jan. 5, 2017, meeting involving President Barack Obama, Biden, then-FBI
Director James Comey and others about an FBI probe into possible collusion between Moscow and the 2016 Trump campaign. According to the note, Biden suggested that Justice Department officials might investigate Michael
Flynn, Trump’s designated national security adviser, for allegedly violating the Logan Act — a little-known 1799 law that bans unauthorized Americans from talking to foreign adversaries and never has been used successfully to prosecute anyone — during his talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Flynn supporters see the note as proof that Obama and Biden actively pushed for the probe. And Biden seems evasive when he talks about the matter.
In May, the former vice president told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he knew “nothing about these moves to investigate Michael Flynn.” When Stephanopoulos reminded Biden that he had sat in on the Jan. 5 meeting on Flynn, Biden responded that he thought Stephanopoulos “asked me whether or not I had anything to do with him being prosecuted,” which doesn’t quite make sense. Biden then said, “I was aware that they asked
SAUNDERS
pressure Sisolak to reopen schools. Instead, Jara has threatened that reductions to the district’s budget at the upcoming special session could result in an increase in distance education.
That would be a mistake. Implement safety precautions, such as temperature checks and limiting the interaction between classrooms. But, especially for elementary students, Nevada’s leaders need to ensure children return to school full-time in August.