After that confrontation, Biden stopped making the crime/cuts comparison. Today, The Hillreports that Biden wants to know how Mattera got to him in the first place, and his office "has also contacted the standing committee of correspondents, which oversees the gallery, regarding whether Mattera broke the rules by ambushing him."There's more at the link. The video of the Biden confrontation went viral and the Veep doesn't come out looking too good. It's also at the link.
The case is thin. Mattera was not as up-front as he's been in other videos. As you can clearly see, he gets close to the VP not by asking a question and saying where he's from, but by getting into a photo-op. "Mr. Vice President," he says. "Picture?" Once Mattera's got Biden he starts asking him a well-formulated question: "Do you regret using a rape reference to describe Republican opposition to the jobs bill?" Biden's "don't screw around" comment, which led the stories about this, might be a reference to the tactic. And yeah, the tactic is unfair. Most reporters are anonymous enough that, if they felt like it, they could sidle up to a politician in congressional offices, they could ask them questions without announcing that they were with the press. The answers they'd get might be different than the ones they get after they announce themselves as reporters.*
By the way, the defense of Mattera above was written by another reporter, and that's gotta hurt Biden even more.
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