Leave it to a former Obama administration official to showcase conventional D.C. gaslighting at its most brazen.
Wednesday on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” with hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino, former Obama White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina repeatedly insisted that President Joe Biden’s now-infamous kitchen fire story showed how the president connects with voters.
Messina said it again and again, so it must be true. That is, after all, how gaslighting works.
The Democratic operative’s defense of Biden came after nearly two weeks of obliviousness and callousness that defy belief even for this president.
On Aug. 8, a fast-moving wildfire devastated the coastal town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Officials have confirmed more than 100 people dead and over 800 missing.
When asked about the tragedy, Biden responded with an incomprehensible “no comment.”
He continued to enjoy a Delaware beach vacation and then headed to Lake Tahoe for another relaxing getaway. Finally, on Monday — 13 days after the wildfire — Biden visited Maui for a few hours before resuming his vacation.
While speaking to the devastated people of Lahaina, Biden made a stupendously lame effort to relate. He told wildfire victims who have lost everything that he once experienced a small kitchen fire.
“Lightning struck at home, on a little lake that’s outside of our home,” the president said. “To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette and my cat.”
Hemmer said this kind of talk from politicians “fails because it’s not real,” but Messina disagreed.
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“I think his empathy, his stories, his way he connects with voters are why he won the 2020 presidential election,” Messina said of Biden.
“He has empathy and connection with voters that press and D.C. pundits like me don’t fully give him enough credit for, and I think this kind of thing is the way your neighbor would talk to you, and it’s why people like him,” he added.
If your neighbor talks to you the way Biden talked to the people of Lahaina, build a fence. Or sell your home. Your neighbor might be a pathological narcissist.
When Hemmer pressed Messina on Biden’s tone-deaf story of a kitchen fire extinguished in less than 20 minutes, the D.C. pundit doubled down on his “personal connection” nonsense.
“Look, I think it’s how he connects with people. I think it’s his way of connecting and telling a personal story. I’ve been with him on the ground where he does this, and people connect with it,” Messina said.
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For those who did not keep count, Messina used the word “connect” or “connection” five times in five sentences. In fact, he used one of those words exactly once per sentence.
This is Establishment Gaslighting 101. Tell the opposite of the truth. Be subtle about it. But repeat the lie often enough that people begin to distrust their eyes, ears and sense of moral decency.
Indeed, a practiced liar with skills honed by years of experience can even gaslight with rhythmic symmetry. Exactly one use of “connect” or “connection” per sentence shows an expert at work, a veritable gaslighting Ph.D.
So it turns out that the president is not a soulless oligarch eager to return to vacation. Biden connects with people. They like him.
Do I need to say it again?
