There’s something infinitely more important here than protecting a diminished president.

At first glance, it’s a tad perplexing. A big-box media that has spent weeks fanning speculation that Democrats are poised to yank President Joe Biden off their 2024 ticket is now expending copious effort at “debunking” videos that highlight the 81-year-old White House occupant’s troubling physical appearance. There’s a larger motivation at work, however, and it says everything about the political establishment’s perceived path to victory in November.

Misinformation once again ran amok in the online world, NBC News proclaimed.

“Misleading videos and false claims that President Joe Biden wandered off aimlessly from the G7 conference [in mid-June] continued to go viral despite debunkings and fact-checks that tried to correct the record,” the lead sentence to a June 19 article stated. “Google recommended false versions of the story as ‘top stories.’ Deceptive video clips continued to accumulate millions of views on X,” the second paragraph read. “Copies of the videos were replayed on TikTok and YouTube with little context. Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, applied fact-checking labels to some posts but not to all.”

CBS News sought to boost a new buzz term.

“You’ve probably heard of ‘deep fakes,’ but just last week, as President Biden was at the G7 summit in Italy, ‘cheap fake’ clips went viral on social media and were picked up by some news outlets. But what are they?” a helpful June 18 explainer video teased.

CNN opted for the more direct approach. “Edited video goes through conservative echo chamber,” a subhead to a June 14 article declared. Even when the video isn’t edited, it’s still not true, they say. Biden was captured on June 15 awkwardly freezing up during a star-studded Hollywood fundraiser. The Associated Press was on the case, informing Americans that what they could clearly see for themselves in “fact” never happened.

“CLAIM: Biden froze onstage during his fundraiser in Los Angeles on Saturday night and had to be led away by [Barack] Obama,” AP wrote June 18. “THE FACTS: Biden paused amid cheers and applause as he exited the stage with his predecessor following an interview moderated by late-night [TV] host [Jimmy] Kimmel.”

More Than Just a Media in the Bag for Biden?

None of this is primarily about defending Joe Biden. Plenty of worried dominant media outlets have acknowledged that his deteriorating health poses a serious problem for Democrats. This party-line narrative is meant to buttress a far more crucial point for a Swamp ruling establishment that fully understands how deeply unpopular it is with the American people.

(Photo by Alon Skuy/Getty Images)

“Trump supporters fall for every lie” is their most cherished defense mechanism. It’s the supremely comforting thought at the core of every high-profile attack on the populist former president since he first crashed the White House hopeful green room in the summer of 2015. It can be found at the heart of Russia-gate, the Jan. 6 storyline, the elaborate lawfare process against Trump – all of it.

Fundamentally, it is not a campaign against Donald Trump but on the Americans who back him. They are fools. Suckers. Marks who can’t help falling for the convicted felon’s endless carnival of chicanery.

This ultimately extends beyond Trump voters, but the average grassroots Democrat voter will never grasp that. It is a projection offered up by a well-off credentialed class that refuses to allow itself to believe that anyone who opposes its self-supporting political agenda does so out of any semblance of genuine, thoughtful belief.

Can’t Spell RINO Without a P

Americans aren’t seething over massive unchecked illegal immigration, runaway crime or supermarket receipt sticker shock, you see. It’s those cheap-fake videos they’re watching online that are getting them all riled up. This is a vital distinction. The second sentence is wholly manageable. The first is a catastrophe for the purveyors of the status quo.

Just as with the loaded term “democracy,” the word “principle” has been used as a hammer against Trump backers. Only Republicans who loathe the post-2016 GOP are infused with it.

Principles First is the name of the leading Never Trump PAC. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and other establishment Republicans who have been vocal in their condemnation of Trump are routinely cloaked in the P garment in so-called mainstream media accounts. Fox News board member and virulently anti-Trump former House speaker Paul Ryan leans on the word every time he pops up in front of the network’s cameras.

“I’m a conservative Republican. Trump is a populist. He’s not a conservative. I would prefer a party that is based on principles not personality or populism. This populism is untethered to principles,” Ryan told Fox host Neil Cavuto on June 18.

Note that Ryan is not merely saying Trump has no principles. He is saying every American attracted to his populist beliefs is also devoid of them.