President Biden Posts a Senator's Phone Number Over Daylight Saving Time, Asks Nation to Call Before Sunrise

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Saturday published what he said was the personal phone number of a senator from his own party, urging the senator's constituents to call and demand he stop holding up a bill that would end the twice-yearly clock change. The senator's mailbox was full by early afternoon. The clocks did not move.

The dispute concerns the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent. Biden says Americans want more afternoon sun. The senator says permanent daylight time would send children to bus stops in the dark all winter. Both men, The Press notes, are arguing about the same sixty minutes, which neither of them controls.

In the post, Biden called the senator "a friend of mine" one sentence before supplying the friend's number to roughly every adult with a phone in the senator's home state. Etiquette experts confirmed that this is not traditionally how friends are treated, but conceded it is efficient.

Members of the President's party, asked whether releasing a colleague's number to a national audience might be a security concern, said they had not seen the post, then checked their own phones for missed calls from unknown numbers.

The Press's White House desk applies the standard test: had the other party's president posted a senator's number to his followers over a clock dispute, the phrase 'doxxing a sitting senator' would already be trending and three hearings would be scheduled. Under Biden, it is being described as 'grassroots engagement.' The voicemail is equally full under either name.

At press time the bill remained stalled, the senator's phone remained ringing, and the sun had set at its regular time.