If you saw screenshots or clips last week, you know the background and what the headline above is referring to.
Last week, on Thursday evening, while Biden searched for the soul of the nation by calling half the country fascist, he stood in front of a demonic-looking background of Independence Hall illuminated in red, white, and blue. The problem, for Biden, is that the close camera shot only showed the red part of the building which came off as a dark and evil-looking setting.
The optics were startling, especially for a speech delivered with such hateful undertones attacking Trump voters as terrorists and “MAGA Republicans” as an occupying force marching around the country.
Take a look at these screenshots, courtesy of the DailyMail, which clearly show the difference between the original and the CNN “softened” background that took more of a pink hue.
Original Biden background:
Altered CNN Biden background:
The change occurred somewhere in the middle of Biden’s speech according to reports. CNN blamed the issue on a technical problem which seems preposterous:
CNN is facing questions from critics after the network was busted altering the lighting for President Biden’s Thursday address, softening the blood-red hues to calmer shades of pink.
The president came in for withering mockery online for the harsh black and red backdrop, with many comparing the optics to “Star Wars” and “V for Vendetta.”
While networks like CNN, MSNBC, CBS and C-SPAN carrying the speech all originally appeared consistent, CNN noticeably altered the color of the background from red to pink in real-time.
Eagle-eyed cable news watchers pounced on the shift. The story was reported in Mediaite, which put the CNN footage up side-by-side against other networks, showing that the CNN switch was not a technical problem that hit all networks.
That’s how bad the optics were as Biden presented a “unifying” speech where he demonized half the country as basically unfit to participate in democracy. CNN tried to fix it for him but there was no fixing this speech.
The speech was widely panned even by Trump critics. A lengthy Politico piece that came out of the weekend explained the origins of the speech and quoted several critics noting that the content and the delivery fell flat:
Jim Dornan, a longtime Republican operative and member of the anti-Trump wing of the party, said while the former president and his allies are giving Biden plenty of evidence to back the arguments made Thursday night, Biden used the wrong tactic. The speech felt like a “24-minute b*tch slap of Republicans,” he said.
“I was offended by certain parts of it. I think he would have been better off not doing it. He’s not going to gain votes from people like me,” he added.
If Biden can’t win over the Never-Trumpers with a 25-minute screed of over-the-top Trump bashing, then what was accomplished last week? For some reason, the White House was bent on Biden delivering this speech at some point before the midterms to continue avoiding responsibility for his policy failures.
The fact that it was produced so poorly with Biden and his blood-red background looking tyrannical while warning about “threats to democracy” is perhaps the definition of irony.
CNN tried to save Biden from himself by softening his tone from red to pink but the message itself couldn’t be softened.
