Joe Biden had not sat down for an in-person interview with any major media outlet for over 200 days. So of course, the outlet that was finally chosen for this interview was “60 Minutes” on CBS, where he could be assured of a softball interview.

And it was quite a softball. Scott Pelley was tasked with making Biden look good, and he did everything short of a back massage and doing Grandpa Joe’s hair while feeding him ice cream. It was a pretty wide-ranging interview, but the soundbites that will get the most comments were already getting their own tweets as the media began to eagerly dissect everything that was said in this puff piece. But even with this being an easy, fluffy interview, there are already comments that the White House are going to be, or are already, walking back.

For example, let’s start with Taiwan. Biden has already said that American troops would be used to defend Taiwan against any attack from China. The White House promptly did a walk-back, insisting that the official policy toward Taiwan had not changed. So here goes old Joe again, saying that American troops would be taking up arms against China if Taiwan was invaded.

“What should Chinese President Xi know about your commitment to Taiwan?” Pelley asked the president.”

“We agree with what we signed onto a long time ago,” the president said. “And that there’s one China policy, and Taiwan makes their own judgments about their independence. We are not moving– we’re not encouraging their being independent. We’re not– that– that’s their decision.”

“But would U.S. forces defend the island?” Pelley asked.”

“Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack,” Mr. Biden said.”

“So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir,” Pelley said, “U.S. forces, U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?”

“Yes,” the president said.”

After the interview, a White House official said U.S. policy on Taiwan has not changed. Officially, the U.S. maintains “strategic ambiguity” on whether American forces would defend Taiwan, but the Taiwan Relations Act obligates the U.S. to help equip Taiwan to defend itself.”

President Biden tells 60 Minutes that U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. However, after our interview, a White House official told us that U.S. policy on Taiwan has not changed. https://t.co/ANg54LifSH pic.twitter.com/V5qjoqF36T

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 19, 2022

How does this keep happening? Well, here’s another example of something that’s about to be not walked, but RUN back. We all know that, for all practical intents and purposes, that the COVID pandemic is over. However, the Biden administration used the fact that the “national emergency” is still in place in order to announce their giant student loan debt “forgiveness” program. The entire rationale for a huge cash giveaway to college educated people was the pandemic. Here is Joe Biden, announcing that the pandemic is over.

“The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over,” President Biden tells 60 Minutes in an interview in Detroit. https://t.co/7SixTE3OMT pic.twitter.com/s5fyjRpYuX

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 19, 2022

Apparently, no one told his staff.

Biden’s insistence on Sunday night that the pandemic is over caught several of his own health officials by surprise. The declaration was not part of his planned remarks ahead of the “60 Minutes” interview, two administration officials familiar with the matter told POLITICO.”

And Charles C.W. Cooke of National Review points out that with that statement that the pandemic is over, Biden is admitting that his student loan “forgiveness” plan is illegal.

Back in August, Biden’s lawyers argued with half-straight faces that the 2003 HEROES Act — which, as Bloomberg Law has noted, was passed not as a generalized enabling act but “to help borrowers serving in the military in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks” — could be twisted to apply to any national emergency, including pandemics such as Covid-19. This, of course, was nonsense. Among the specific problems with Biden’s argument was that the 2003 HEROES Act does not cover debt cancelation (i.e., transference to taxpayers); that its “direct economic hardship” language does not allow for mass relief; that the application of its “or national emergency” language clearly violates the major questions doctrine; and that the administration’s insistence that the act was designed to allow the executive branch “to act quickly should a situation arise that has not been considered” was flatly contradicted by the fact that the president waited until two-and-a-half years into the pandemic before acting, and then gave relief to the most privileged people in America. But, even if one were to ignore all that, one could still not get past the fact that the powers to which Biden laid claim can be applied only when there is an active emergency, and that the active emergency Biden is citing has now passed.”

Shadow president Chief of Staff Ron Klain is probably screaming and tearing out his hair at this point: “SEE, THIS IS WHY WE DON’T LET HIM DO INTERVIEWS!” And when someone asks Karine Jean-Pierre about the pandemic being over, how quickly will she duck and try and dodge her way out of that one?

And now to inflation. Even Scott Pelley can’t ignore the crashing stock market after the last round of inflation numbers were released (and then the White House decided to “party on” and damn the optics). There wasn’t a whole lot Pelley could do to soften these numbers, but he gave it a try and let Biden weasel his way out of it.

Scott Pelley: Mr. President, as you know, last Tuesday the annual inflation rate came in at 8.3%. The stock market nosedived. People are shocked by their grocery bills. What can you do better and faster?”

President Joe Biden: Well, first of all, let’s put this in perspective. Inflation rate month to month was just– just an inch, hardly at all,”

Scott Pelley: You’re not arguing that 8.3% is good news.”

President Joe Biden: No, I’m not saying it is good news. But it was 8.2% or– 8.2% before. I mean, it’s not– you’re ac– we act– make it sound like all of a sudden, “My god, it went to 8.2%.” It’s been–”

Scott Pelley: It’s the highest inflation rate, Mr. President, in 40 years.”

President Joe Biden: I got that. But guess what we are. We’re in a position where, for the last several months, it hasn’t spiked. It has just barely– it’s been basically even. And in the meantime, we created all these jobs and– and prices– have– have gone up, but they’ve come down for energy. The fact is that we’ve created 10 million new jobs. We’re in– since we came to office. We’re in a situation where the– the unemployment rate is about 3.7%. one of the lowest in history. We’re in a situation where manufacturing is coming back to the United States in a big way. And look down the road, we have mas– massive investments being made in computer chips and– and employment. So, I– look, this is a process. This is a process.”

Scott Pelley: Is the economy going to get worse before it gets better?”

President Joe Biden: No. I don’t think so. We hope we can have what they say, “a soft landing,” a transition to a place where we don’t lose the gains that I ran to make in the first place for middle-class folks, being able to generate good-paying jobs and– expansion. And at the same time– make sure that we– we are– are able to continue to grow.”

Scott Pelley: And you would tell the American people that inflation is going to continue to decline?”

President Joe Biden: No, I’m telling the American people that we’re gonna get control of inflation. And their prescription drug prices are gonna be a hell of a lotta lower. Their health care costs are gonna be a lot lower. Their basic costs for everybody, their energy prices are gonna be lower. They’re gonna be in a situation where they begin to gain control again. I’m– more optimistic than I’ve been in a long time.”

This is spoken with all the ignorance of a man who doesn’t buy his own ice cream. Inflation is smacking the American public in the face every single time they buy food. No one can escape it, but the rich feel the impact less. And Biden is like “meh, it was just an inch last month!” And then he rambles on about unemployment and manufacturing, all while ignoring the fact that the interest rates are going to go up, and the idea of a “soft landing” now seems laughable. The third quarter closes at the end of this month, and by the first week or so of October, we are going to have more numbers to look at. If those numbers take a fall again, there is very little chance that the media or the White House will be able to spin away a third consecutive quarter loss as “technically NOT a recession.” But gosh darn it, they will try, because their whole political future depends on it.

And not just their future, but Joe Biden’s future as well.

“My intention, as I said to begin with, is that I would run again. But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen,” President Biden tells Scott Pelley on whether he will run in 2024. https://t.co/yxmSENk4KK pic.twitter.com/mcTIRtkUBi

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 19, 2022

While other members of the administration have danced around this issue, Biden is freely admitting here that what happens in the midterms will shape his political future. If the Democrats manage to hold on to the Senate, and only just barely lose the House, then Biden will see that as an indication that even as crappy as his policies have been, he can still win a general election. But if there is a shellacking this November, then the Democrats are going to have to think about leaving the old man in the basement permanently. Maybe they should tell him that “Beau would want that.”

“There [are] so many literal heroes getting up every day, putting one foot in front of the other with no help. I constantly think what would Beau [Biden] want me to do?” President Biden said regarding what motivates him to keep going. https://t.co/7SixTElqbt pic.twitter.com/Zy4pERvWFK

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 19, 2022

It never fails. Pelley asked Biden about Hunter, and “The Big Guy” swears up and down that Hunter (who is trying to get his child support payments reduced – will he blame inflation?) is not creating any problems for him.

“I love my son, number one. He fought– an addiction problem. He overcame it. He wrote about it. And no, there’s not a single thing that I’ve observed at all from th– that would affect me or the United States relative to my son Hunter.”

But if Hunter gets brought up, that just lets Pelley softball his way into the tragedies of Biden’s life, which means he gets to bring up the sainted Beau again. And people wonder why Hunter has problems.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed watching Scott Pelley give Joe Biden a thorough grooming. (The complete interview can be seen here.) The White House is going to be on clean-up duty for a while after this interview – which means it will be at least another 200 days before Ron Klain allows Grandpa Joe to do another one.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click