As Twitchy reported Monday, The Daily Beast was shocked and dismayed to report that Fox News hosts had begun raising suspicions about 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden’s health. “In the news business, it is considered irresponsible to spread baseless, potentially damaging rumors about public figures,” wrote The Daily Beast’s.
CNN media guy Brian Stelter picked up on the story and repeated the response from the Biden campaign, which said such talk “has no place in our public discourse” and “anyone amplifying it bears some responsibility for giving it legitimacy.” That second bit sounds like they’re talking about the news media, doesn’t it?
Biden camp says "these are baseless lies meant to stoke fear in their viewers. It has no place in our public discourse, and anyone amplifying it bears some responsibility for giving it legitimacy it most certainly does not deserve" https://t.co/Eg6smwzTES
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 10, 2019
Plenty of people weighed in to ask if Stelter had a mirror in his possession since he and CNN had spent weeks questioning President Trump’s mental and physical fitness. Here are some more flashbacks in case Stelter needed another reminder about “amplifying” rumors about someone’s health.
In response to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Trump tweeted that he had a nuclear button too, and his actually worked. This caused Stelter to rewrite the opening to “Anderson Cooper 360” at the last minute.
"madness, shouldn't we call it that?" Yes @brianstelter, this is madness.
— April Conyers (@aprilolanoff) January 3, 2018
This is about the president's fitness. It's uncomfortable. But it's incumbent on journalists to ask these Q's. https://t.co/6DbjZW8S71
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 3, 2018
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Gotcha. And that’s why it was important for CNN’s Jake Tapper to interview Rep. Jamie Raskin, who had met with psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee, who had never examined nor even met the president but was running around Congress warning anyone who’d listen that Trump was “unraveling” and “losing his grip on reality.”
She, by the way, was also editor of the book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President” and wanted him restrained and examined, her only worry being that physically restraining the president might look like a coup attempt.
Psychiatrist tells Dems in Congress: Trump is losing grip on reality https://t.co/6dxJcC2bZr #TheLead pic.twitter.com/mJ71x1S5s2
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 4, 2018
Good interview. And as if a psychiatrist with TDS diagnosing someone over the TV wasn’t enough, fact-challenged writer Michael Wolff inspired a column by Stelter on … Trump’s mental fitness:
The gossipy parts of Wolff's book obscure the bigger, more important point. His reporting suggests Trump is unstable — raising alarms about his fitness for office. Here's my new column https://t.co/d9Y5JNBJtq
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 4, 2018
And hey, look: in February, a month later, Stelter was still at it:
Fears about President Trump's competency are coming to the forefront. "Mental fitness" has come up at the W.H. briefing two days in a row https://t.co/hPebOM5wvV https://t.co/h19uOIKKZY
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 4, 2018
And here he is again:
Maybe President Trump is cool, calm and collected in person. But on Twitter, he sounds deeply troubled right now. He sounds unhinged. This is why Q's about his fitness for office are so urgent… https://t.co/Kj8xG1PZAp
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 18, 2018
Oh, and don’t forget that Stelter and CNN weren’t just concerned with Trump’s mental fitness to serve. Remember when word got out that he drank 12 Diet Cokes a day? CNN was on it:
? ? ? ?? ? ? ?? ? ? ?
President Trump reportedly drinks 12 Diet Cokes each day. What exactly does that do to his body? https://t.co/1NlfwW9uED https://t.co/iYRNRa45zo
— CNN (@CNN) December 11, 2017
So is questioning a candidate’s health “has no place in our public discourse,” Stelter should tell his colleagues to all meet up for a big glass of STFU juice.
Related:
Anyone have a mirror handy? Brian Stelter's take on Biden health rumors is 'your self-awareness fail of the day' https://t.co/Uz4hY2AnOh
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 10, 2019
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