When you expect the media to be awful at their jobs, they never disappoint.

The news that Kamala Harris was Team Biden’s choice (not Joe’s personal choice; he is only allowed to choose between Jello and pudding for dessert these days) set the media on fire yesterday afternoon. While Republicans rightly saw Kamala Harris as a failed presidential candidate replete with a ton of exploitable baggage and video clips, the media instead turned up the gas and lit it on fire.

After all, who are you going to believe? Our media betters, or your lying eyes?

Analysis: No, Kamala Harris didn’t call Joe Biden racist https://t.co/NmK1EnaaEp

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 12, 2020

Um, wut? We sort of all SAW IT WHEN IT HAPPENED.

But no, says Philip Bump of the Washington Post.

The claim apparently stems from a moment in the first Democratic primary debate in late June 2019, when Harris and the former vice president were both contending for the party’s nomination. The candidates on the stage, all 10 of them, were discussing then-South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s record with his city’s Black population.”

Harris, seizing the floor, used the moment to pivot to criticism of Biden, the candidate who had continually led in the polls. Earlier that month, Biden touted his ability to work with senators with whom he disagreed, including ones who supported segregation.”

“I was actually very — it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country,” Harris said. “And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing” — that is, federal efforts to integrate schools by busing Black students into largely White districts.”

“You know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day,” Harris continued. “And that little girl was me.”

But Bump is really bad at this attempt at a Jedi mind trick, as he has to admit in the same piece that EVERYONE who heard Kamala’s comments called it her attempt to frame Biden as a racist.

Unlike Joe Biden, people remember what Harris said at the time, and how it was interpreted in the moment – even by outlets like Teen Vogue and the New Yorker and Slate. The media is trying to gloss this over now – and it isn’t just the Washington Post, it’s also the AP and even Neil Cavuto on Fox News who are attempting to “set the record straight” that Harris never EXPLICTLY called Biden a racist.

Right, Kamala simply called Biden a friend & ally of racist segregationists & said he helped those racist segregationists oppose integration & busing & clearly implied if the racist segregationists & Biden had had their way it would’ve harmed her as a young black girl growing up. https://t.co/4eEDbjVora

— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) August 12, 2020

But the media are now thoroughly committed to Kamala Harris, even to the point where they are giving the game away.

Joe Biden made the pick that maximized his chances of continuing to make the race a straight referendum on Trump while also selecting someone whose resume suggests being ready to step in, if and when Biden decides to step aside. | Analysis by @CillizzaCNN https://t.co/Ek4d6sfGfT

— CNN (@CNN) August 11, 2020

“If and when” is a very strange way to put this, and it means that the media completely knows what the narrative is here. Joe Biden is no longer mentally sound to be president. Be honest, if he were your grandfather, you would have taken away both his keys and his driver’s license by now. Kamala Harris has been chosen by the Democrat leadership, even though the media is trying to spin her as some kind of “moderate,” to be the heir apparent. Or in this case, the regent for the aged king who has lost his mind. Or, in American terms, the Edith Wilson of the 21st century.

And in choosing Kamala Harris, Team Biden just gave Team Trump an open avenue of attack. Biden is now the doddering figurehead of his own campaign. In acknowledging the “if and when” bargain that the Democrats have made, it means the race is truly Trump versus Kamala Harris. And THAT is a campaign that Donald Trump, if he can stay out of his own way, can win.

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Featured image: Kamala Harris by Gage Skidmore on Flickr, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)