It was a blatant cakewalk. The CNN town hall for Joe Biden was Exhbit A in how the media is protecting Joe Biden from himself.

First of all, Joe Biden was asked sixteen questions. Thirteen of those came from Democrats, the remaining three were Republicans. At the Trump town hall, out of the twelve questioners only four voted for Trump, several voted for Hillary and one voted for Stein. 

Secondly, the contrast between the two town halls as well as the questions asked was so glaringly different that even the liberal media took notice. 

“For the second time this week, a presidential candidate fielded questions from voters in a town hall setting. But if ABC’s event with President Donald Trump was an icy grilling, CNN’s drive-in conversation with Joe Biden Thursday was more like an affable reunion of old acquaintances.”

When even Matt Yglesias points out the stark differences…

You again really see the @JamesFallows Why Americans Hate The Media dynamic on display at this Biden town hall.

Pro journalist wants Biden to respond to something weird the Attorney General said.

Citizen questioner wants Biden to explain his health care plan.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 18, 2020

The Washington Post tried mightily to do its usual fact checking on Biden’s comments.

““But when you guys started talking on television about Biden, if he wins he’d be the first person without an Ivy League degree to be elected president.”

Nope, no reporter said that. Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, was the last president who did not go to an Ivy League university. (He went to little Eureka College in Illinois.)”

Then there’s his questionable comments regarding Affordable Care and pre-existing conditions. And, of course, he HAD to bring in Beau on that. 

No one there called Biden out on his fracking flips. Moreover, Anderson Cooper rephrased several of the questions for Biden. Such as this one on the Green New Deal. 

As pointed out here, the Recovery Act didn’t recover a damned thing.

“Five years ago today, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. The $830 billion spending blowout was sold by the White House as a way to keep unemployment from rising above 8%. But the stimulus would fail on its own terms. 2009 marked the first of four straight years when unemployment averaged more than 8%. And of course the unemployment rate would have been even worse in those years and still today if so many people had not quit the labor force, driving labor-participation rates to 1970s levels.”

OOPS.

Then there was Biden’s claims about the virus, which included once again his leaning into anti-vaxx territory.

Biden claims Trump is responsible for every single person who has died from COVID-19:

"If the president had done his job, had done his job from the beginning, all the people would still be alive. All the people — I’m not making this up. Just look at the data. Look at the data." pic.twitter.com/Z6tkk9NzHi

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 18, 2020

Believe it or not, WaPo’s Glenn Kessler admitted that Biden didn’t have any data to back up his assertions. There was a dig at Trump with a side pile-on of how governors have been handling the issue. However, for the WaPo to bluntly state at the top of the fact-check article that Biden is wrong… OOF.

Then there’s the fact check on Biden’s pandemic article in USA Today. What is left out of the fact check is Biden slamming Trump and calling him xenophobic the day after the China travel ban was implemented.

We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 1, 2020

Is anyone in the liberal media planning to fact check Biden channeling the Obama Biden “Wall Street vs Main Street” spiel?

Joe Biden’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Kamala Harris Memorial Celebrity Trump Awareness Fun Run Pro Am Race for the Cure https://t.co/ZZfiftH7wW

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 18, 2020

I admit, I laughed at that. A LOT. New York City is in one helluva mess right now because of de Blasio’s incompetence. So I find it very interesting that Biden literally positioned himself AGAINST the city and the democrat voters that are still there. 

Here’s the thing. Biden’s town hall was a major cakewalk. It truly was. Anderson Cooper jumped in several times to “help” Joe with the questions. That didn’t stop Joe from rambling at different points throughout the night. Nor did it stop Joe from receiving zero pushback after calling Russia an opponent and China a competitor. And no one asked him tough questions such as his stance on guns and the Second Amendment. 

In August Joe delivered chapter one of his own eulogy. CNN’s handing Biden a cakewalk is chapter two. Will the debate on September 29 be chapter 3?

Feature Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, cropped and modified