Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner had her conspiratorial bubble surprisingly burst on Thursday by Ari Fleischer of all people, who unequivocally told her that President Joe Biden does actually control the White House.
After spending an inordinate amount of her Thursday morning interview with the former Bush flack discussing the right-wing outrage du jour—that Vice President Kamala Harris supposedly used a French accent—Faulkner, who has long been touted by Fox News as one of its “straight news” anchors, then turned to another conservative talking point: That an aging Joe Biden is not actually in charge of his own White House.
“Who is running the White House, in your estimation? You have been inside, you know what it looks like, is it fair to continue to question that?” Faulkner asked Fleischer, who served as President George W. Bush’s White House press secretary.
“Unequivocally, it’s Joe Biden,” Fleischer flatly responded.
Apparently surprised by her colleague’s response, the Fox anchor declared: “You think it is?!”
Fleischer reiterated that Biden “absolutely” runs the White House, adding that the president “sets the tone.”
The Fox anchor then asked Fleischer why Biden “turns his back to the media most of the time when he’s with us,” seeming to suggest that the president is following shadowy orders to not engage with the press.
“Because he doesn’t want to talk to the media,” Fleischer pushed back. “Because he’s running the show and he gets to make those kinds of decisions.”
He continued: “I think it’s overstated to make the case it’s his advisers, it’s other people. Presidents make the call, presidents make the decisions, and Joe Biden is well enough that he is making the decisions. So it’s Joe Biden, he’s just making the wrong decisions.”
Even before Biden was elected last year, numerous Fox News hosts and commentators have not only suggested but outright accused the president of being senile and suffering from cognitive decline. And aside from claiming Biden is mentally unfit for office, Fox News personalities have repeatedly pushed the theory that Biden is president “in name only” and that a shadowy cabal of progressives—perhaps led by Vice President Harris or former President Barack Obama—actually run the show.