Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony for Joe Biden was, predictably, the establishment media victory lap everyone was waiting for.
Remember Donald Trump’s inauguration day four years ago? His address was described as a “dark, threatening first speech” (Quartz), and the media pressed him on admitting how small his crowd was in comparison to Barack Obama’s inaugural festivities in 2008.
On Wednesday, we had CNN’s Anderson Cooper telling poet Amanda Gorman, who read at the Biden event, “Wow. You’re awesome.”
Advertisement - story continues below
Anderson Cooper to Amanda Gorman is all of us: “Wow. You’re awesome.”
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) January 21, 2021
TRENDING: McConnell Out? Insiders Drop Bomb, May Not Finish Out Term: Report
Not that the poem wasn’t good, but one guesses Cooper wasn’t complimenting the poetry.
If that didn’t sum up the temperature of the day on CNN for you, there was always Wolf Blitzer’s remarks as Trump left the White House for Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
Advertisement - story continues below
But first, there was Trump’s takeoff from the White House.
“He’s flying over Washington, D.C., right now heading toward Joint Base Andrews. A brief little flight,” Blitzer said.
“Looked like they wanted to do a little circle over the U.S. Capitol as — and we could hear, where you and I are sitting, John, we could heat that Marine One flying just over our heads not too far away at all,” he continued.
“He’ll have a little bit of a speech, I suspect. Looks like a tiny little crowd gathered at Joint Base Andrews.”
Then, after John King gave us some very objective talk about how Trump inspired the Capitol incursion and didn’t respect the electoral system — completely unlike Joe Biden, of course, who might as well have been Captain America if you were judging by this snippet of punditry — Blitzer again went back to talking about the littleness of it all.
Advertisement - story continues below
“But he should be landing Joint Base Andrews. What a difference four years makes,” he said.
“He had a very impressive, huge crowd at his inauguration. It’s going to be a little pathetic, tiny little crowd at Joint Base Andrews where he’s going to say goodbye.”
There’s a reason this is just a little hypocritical.
Advertisement - story continues below
Official tally is in: Biden’s #Inauguration crowd exceeds Trump’s pic.twitter.com/rdO7Zv78Q8
— Scott Hadland (@DrScottHadland) January 20, 2021
Yes, while the joke was that Biden’s crowd was bigger than Trump’s, the fact was that this is the era of COVID-19, social distancing and smaller crowds. This wasn’t just limited to the Capitol, either, or because of the fact that a massive troop deployment in D.C. made certain there weren’t going to be any sizable gatherings to celebrate.
Here was Washington’s Black Lives Matter Plaza — close to the White House and a center for liberal activism after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser set it aside as a protest space last summer — during Biden’s inaugural address:
Advertisement - story continues below
A crowd has gathered at D.C.’s Black Lives Matter Plaza to listen to the inauguration. This was the scene just after President Joe Biden’s speech concluded.
📹: @TalKopan
Live updates: https://t.co/xSx4fp0vqV pic.twitter.com/5sjUS4gPUq
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) January 20, 2021
This isn’t to indicate any lack of enthusiasm for a Biden presidency on the left. Quite the contrary; note the crowds that filled the streets when the media declared him the winner on Nov. 8.
However, it’s only Trump that we have Wolf Blitzer reminding us every third word how little things are.
Advertisement - story continues below
I’m surprised there weren’t any remarks about how his little speech would be read to the little crowd off a little sheet of paper held by Trump’s little hands and little fingers at a little podium before he boarded a little plane.
Sure, Air Force One may be a 747, but it’s no Airbus A380 or Antonov An-225.
Sorry, Donald; it only became big again at noon, when Joe Biden took the oath of office and your little fingers would never ride on it again.
And nobody, for the rest of the day, would be using the word “little” to describe anything about Biden’s inauguration.
Advertisement - story continues below
I’m assuming that’s just because Blitzer used that word right up.
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.