Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., said he was met with a blank stare and “awkward silence” when he pressed President Joe Biden to be more involved in supporting voting reforms.
SO WHAT
Biden’s non-reaction to Jones’ entreaty played into progressives’ fears that the president isn’t fully committed to their agenda.
What happened
Jones, who was at the White House Monday for the signing of a proclamation making Juneteenth a national holiday, told The Associated Press that Biden “just sort of stared at me.”
Biden released a statement in support of the For the People Act, which some on the right have described as a partisan “assault on American democracy,” after Senate Republicans blocked it on Tuesday.
But disappointed fellow Democrats have said the president is not doing nearly enough to advance the issue of voting rights.
MONEY QUOTE
Meanwhile, the right’s interpretation of Biden’s interaction with Jones centered on long-standing concerns about the president’s mental acuity.
“The encounter Jones described is certain to fuel concerns about Biden’s mental health, especially after the president bumbled his way through the G7 Summit in England earlier this month, embarrassing himself and his country in the process,” The Washington Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles wrote in a satirical report on the incident.
