By Monica Showalter - October 8, 2021

In 1787, an imperial Russian governor named Grigory Potemkin constructed a pretty village facade, a theatre set, actually, that's since become known as a Potemkin Village. His aim was to fool the passing empress, Catherine the Great, into thinking all was well on her journey through war-ravaged Crimea, when in fact it was not.

It now looks like the White House has viewed that story as a how-to guide -- this time, to fool the passing voters.

According to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Today's deep question: Why does Biden use a stage set instead of the White House?

The “fake set” question first came up a week ago, when a few critics speculated that Joe Biden’s booster shot was as staged as the environs. There’s not a shred of evidence that Biden didn’t get his third dose, and no good reason why he wouldn’t have either. But what is undeniably odd is the White House’s continued use of the set, rather than … y’know … the White House.

Here's what it looked like:

Image: Screen shot from Fox News video, via shareable YouTube

This is bizarre indeed, given that Biden has full access to the actual White House. Why the replica, when you have the real thing right there?

According to the New York Post:

Some ridiculed Biden for using a “literal game show set” as president, while others accused him of deliberately trying to deceive Americans into thinking he was in the White House. …

The set where Biden was pictured — which is complete with professional monitors and lighting — is located in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is across from the White House.

Tucker Carlson has broadcast an important theory from former Trump administration advisor Stephen Miller, who knows his way around the White House:

Miller believes that the phony set was constructed to enable Biden to read from a computer screen below him instead of a very visible teleprompter. Which seems like a lot of expense for something they could just admit and adapt the White House to. But they'd rather fool the public. Biden, it seems, cannot talk off the cuff, or perhaps see well enough, or read well enough, without the words before him and up close, in a professionally lit setting.

This points to the Potemkin reason -- that he's not in charge, he's lost his faculties, his brain is a shambling, ravaged Crimean village nobody of importance should see, and he wants to fool the voters. That's what the Potemkin set is for. Tucker makes this point again and again in his full segment, pointing out that voters still don't quite know who is in charge.

The broader picture beyond the phony White House set is that Joe Biden is inauthentic, a phony, and voters are onto it . . .

[SNIP]