President Joe Biden just reached a new low with his media cheat sheets.
Biden met Wednesday with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and he took questions afterward about the U.S.’s alliance with South Korea.
A cheat sheet for media questions was seen in Biden’s hand that showed the order in which he would take the pre-approved questions… and it even included photos of reporters along with pronunciation guides for their names.
“Question #1,” the sheet said. “How are YOU squaring YOUR domestic priorities — like reshoring semiconductors manufacturing — with alliance-based foreign policy?”
In fact, the sheet even specified how to pronounce one reporter’s last name. “Courtney Subramanian,” it said. “Soo-bruh-MAIN-ee-an, Los Angeles Times.”
Biden needing a cheat sheet to remember names — with pre-approved questions and answers — certainly doesn’t help assuage concerns about Biden’s mental acuity.
After all that, Biden still didn’t use the reporter’s last name at all.
“Now we’re going to take a question,” Biden said. “The first question is from Courtney at the Los Angeles Times.”
Take a look —
Biden looks down at his list of pre-approved reporters to call on pic.twitter.com/ESWPYOE4wQ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 26, 2023
Biden used a cheat sheet at today's press conference — with a reporter's question written on it pic.twitter.com/jfZu5JxKz5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 26, 2023
Biden is no stranger to cheat sheets. In June, he was seen with a particularly infamous sheet. “YOU enter the Roosevelt Room and say hello to participants,” the sheet said at the time. “YOU take YOUR seat.”
Plus, Biden has previously admitted to taking pre-approved questions from the mainstream media. “I’m happy to take some questions, and I’m told I should start with AP [Associated Press],” Biden said after a summit last year.
However, on Wednesday, the L.A. Times reporter Courtney Subramanian went slightly off Biden’s script.
“Your top economic priority has been to build up U.S. domestic manufacturing in competition with China, but your rules against expanding chip manufacturing in China is hurting South Korean companies that rely heavily on Beijing,” Subramanian said. “Are you damaging a key ally in the competition with China to help your domestic politics ahead of the election?”
Biden gave a rambling, repetitive response.
He said —
My desire to increase U.S. manufacturing and jobs in America is not about China. I’m not concerned about China. Remember, America invented the semiconductor. We invented it. We used to have 40 percent of the market. And we decided that what we’re going to do over the past — I don’t know how many decades — we decided that it was going to be cheaper to export jobs and import product…
“I decided to go out and see what we could do to increase our hold on the market once again. And so what I did was I went around the country. As well as in addition to passing the CHIPS and Science Act, I, in fact, visited countries around the world. And two significant South Korean companies decided they were going to invest billions of dollars in chip manufacturing in the United States… and, by the way, it’s creating jobs in — in South Korea.
The Horn editorial team