As much as we on the left love Joe Biden as a person and for his surprisingly liberal agenda, he is still Joe Biden and Joe has always been his own worst enemy in many ways. He has been known as a gaffe machine all his life. Additionally, every once in a while, he lets a little too much of the Irish in him out and he’ll lash out.

It is just “Joe” and you take the good with the bad, today, we saw a little of the bad but also the good. The set-up comes from Mediaite:

President Joe Biden chewed out a reporter for asking him a question about the Department of Veterans Affairs’ new rules requiring their health care workers follow a vaccine mandate.

It doesn’t seem out of line to require healthcare workers to follow vaccine mandates. We see mandates in many other professions and one cannot afford to have a healthcare working giving the disease to a patient (far less likely if vaccinated).

Additionally, O’Donnell was being asked to leave the room as a meeting had begun:

As White House aides urged the press to leave the room, NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell tried to ask Biden a question about VA Secretary Denis McDonough’s announcement that the department will make Covid vaccines mandatory for their front-line workers. McDonough defended the mandate by citing the need for the department’s employees to take maximum protection against the contagious Delta variant.

And with that, Joe unleashed a little Irish, perhaps believing it was a bit rude for a reporter to not ask about Iraq (though that is normal, to ask questions about anything in any press conference), from the transcript:

You are such a pain in the neck, but I’m going to answer your question because we’ve known each other so long. It has nothing to do with Iraq…Yes, Veteran Affairs is going to, in fact, require that all doctors working in their facilities are gonna have to be vaccinated.

Now, that clip will play on Fox (likely) for three days. But three things won’t be noted.

First of all, though we don’t like Biden angrily saying that a reporter is a pain in the neck (uncalled for), he did not go nearly as far as Trump with “I say you’re a terrible reporter,” or “Sit down!” and “I see you’re wearing a mask, please take it off, oh, you’re being politically correct…” just examples that roll off the tongue from Trump. It was relatively benign.

Second, it won’t be noted that Biden did say that he would answer the question because they’d “known each other so long,” which does imply a bit of friendship or at least respect, something Trump never had with the press.

Last, it blows the “sleepy Joe, senile Joe” thing out of the water. President Biden recognized a question that he didn’t think appropriate at the time, reacted immediately, knew exactly to whom he was speaking, and then gave a perfectly correct answer.

In other words, though the clip will be played as a negative on Fox, endlessly, it refutes three things for which he will be criticized. And they won’t even notice.

Four, we bet that Biden apologizes later… One Irishman to an Irishwoman.

"You are such a pain in the neck, but I'm going to answer your question," President Biden said to a reporter while meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi at the White House. pic.twitter.com/q8H3Sjkzeg

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) July 26, 2021

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of LeftScoop.news. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.