Those people doing most to confirm the damaging truth about President Joe Biden’s latest enfeebled onstage “freeze” are the ones trying hardest to suppress it. This is known as the Streisand effect, named for actress Barbra Streisand, whose attempted suppression of a photograph of her Malibu home in 2003 backfired by drawing wide attention to it.
As you would expect, therefore, the politically myopic Hollywood diva was among those who made sure millions of extra voters watched a 40-second video of Biden standing stolidly and perhaps confused in front of a $30 million fundraiser audience in Los Angeles last weekend before his old boss, former President Barack Obama, pulled him out of his stupor and led him gently away.
Responding to stories, posts, and a wider maelstrom centered on Biden’s next-worldly stillness, Streisand posted on X, “The NY Post is printing lies about President Biden. No other media outlets should amplify this disinformation.” With which, of course, she amplified it herself.
Not that the story was disinformation. Here’s what happened. At the end of a successful fundraiser for Biden’s reelection, the president, former president, and host Jimmy Kimmel stood on a blue-lit stage soaking in the crowd’s applause while a band played upbeat climactic chords to close the event. Biden turned to a section of the audience and stood stock-still for eight or nine increasingly weird seconds, during which Obama gave a thumbs-up to the crowd and waved five times in farewell.
Instead of moving off, Biden stayed rooted to the spot. Obama eventually stepped back toward him, reached over and took the president gently by the wrist, and gave him an indicative pull. The president then turned slowly as directed and Obama immediately put a hand on his shoulders and guided him tenderly toward the exit — appropriately enough, at stage left.
Time already whipped him years ago.