Cornyn is criticized for tweet asking if Biden is ‘really in charge’

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The White House tweeted from Sen. John CornynJohn Cornyn OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Dakota Access pipeline continues to operate despite calls for closure | Biden hopes to boost climate spending through B | White House Budget Proposes .4B for Environmental Justice 2024 White House GOP Hopeful Hopes Leads Opposition to Biden’s Cabinet Number of Migrants Detained at Southern Border Hits 15-Year High: Reports MORE (R-Texas) suggested that President BidenJoe Biden Federal Reserve Chairman: Economy would have been ‘so much worse’ without COVID-19 emergency bills Biden to meet with bipartisan lawmakers on infrastructure Monday Jill Biden shouts at Champ, Major on National Pet Day MORE is perhaps just a figurehead for its carefully calibrated media presence.

Earlier in the day, Cornyn shared a Politico story entitled “The Biden White House media doctrine: Less can be more” and quoted a passage noting that Biden has done few cable news interviews, never tweeted often or commented from the cuff and delivers mostly scripted public comments.

“Begs the question: is he really in charge?” Cornyn tweeted.

“I can confirm that the President of the United States is not spending his time tweeting conspiracy theories, but is spending his time working for the American people,” said White House press secretary. Jen PsakiJen Psaki White House Gives Mixed Message About Higher Taxes The Memo: Biden’s Five Biggest Foreign Policy Challenges Biden Sees Greater US Role In Global Vaccination Efforts MORE responded when asked about Cornyn’s comments at a briefing.

Psaki’s comments seemed to be a hit President TrumpDonald Trump Gaetz Didn’t Get Meeting With Trump: CNN Federal Reserve Chairman: Economy Would Have Been ‘So Much Worse’ Without COVID-19 Emergency Bills California City Police Declare Illegal Meeting Amid ‘White Lives Matter’ Protest MORE, who was kicked off Twitter in January, but spent his final months on the platform spreading misleading or false information about the 2020 election and sometimes shared material related to the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Cornyn’s tweet sparked a wider backlash from Democrats and political commentators who slammed Cornyn for promoting conspiracy theories about whether Biden is in charge and for suggesting that the current president’s lack of constant media presence is problematic as Republican senators dodged questions about Trump’s Twitter feed for four years.

“Can the president rule without sending crazy tweets in the middle of the night, asks one of the top Republicans in the Senate? Yes, it turns out he can,” tweeted Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).

“Lord have mercy. You’d think you’d commend Biden for this. So you’re criticizing him for really spending time on his current job? Maybe you should consider doing that,” tweeted Matthew Dowd, a former employee of George W. Bush.

Cornyn followed up on his original tweets by noticing he ‘placed the whole [Politico] story so that people can read it for themselves, and have highlighted a few excerpts. “

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