Media's narrative of Biden's 'cruel summer' is 'divorced from reality': op-ed

Writing in The Daily Beast this Monday, columnists David Rothkopf and Bernard Schwartz want you to disregard media reports of President Joe Biden's "cruel summer." According to them, the president is achieving "big things."

When Biden took office, he inherited a global pandemic and an ongoing economic crisis, coupled with an intensely divided country exacerbated by four years of Donald Trump in the White House, Rothkopf and Schwartz write. But just eight months after Biden took power, he and his team have "engineered transformational progress on many fronts."

"Where there had been no plan to administer vaccines, today over 200 million Americans have received at least one shot and the vaccines are available to every American free of charge and are now required of federal workers as part of a sweeping effort to contain the spread of the virus here," they write. "Our vaccine diplomacy efforts lead the world, with commitments to share 600 million doses to countries in need worldwide. Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has cut the child poverty rate in half. More jobs, 4.1 million, were created in the first six months of this administration than in the 12 years of the Trump and Bush administrations combined. The U.S. economy grew at an extraordinary annualized rate of 6.5 percent during the second quarter of this year. Biden implemented scores of executive orders undoing Trump administration policies that damaged the environment, put our security at risk or violated the rights of Americans."

Biden brought combating climate change to the forefront, the columnists say, and we're also improving relations with key allies -- relationships that were damaged during Trump's tenure. "Biden has appointed new judges at a faster rate than his predecessors. He has appointed the most diverse cabinet in American history as well as the most diverse set of judges."

And then there's the 20-year war in Afghanistan, which Biden brought to an end -- "something neither of his three predecessors had the courage to do even as the costs of that war were compounded daily," they write.

Despite these accomplishments, Rothkopf and Schwartz say that the media is unfairly painting a narrative of Biden's presidency that is "divorced from reality" which will make it more difficult for him to advance his investment agenda, which has been sent to Congress.

"Political opponents who attack Biden recognize this and their motives are clear. Perhaps the journalists and commentators taking the same line think overstating criticisms or conveniently forgetting about real achievements to make for more dramatic headlines is good for business."

Read the full op-ed over at The Daily Beast.