Later than scheduled, Biden gives a speech on Afghanistan
Is the Biden charade finally collapsing? Or not? How long can the Democrats and the MSM delude themselves? Indefinitely?
Of course, there’s always the theory that they want the country to collapse into flailing incompetence. If so, perhaps they’ve already gotten their wish.
Here’s his appearance. I plan to read about it, but you’re welcome to watch:
UPDATE 2:50 PM:
Biden did finally speak, though, and what transpired only made matters worse. Instead of offering a coherent response to his failures, he made excuses, passed the buck, and flashed his patented anger as reporters pressed him for answers.
So, more of the same.
In the end, he only took four questions from far-left outlets and for the first time in his presidency, the anger in the room from the press was palpable. As Biden turned his back on the world again, shouts began to ring out from those in the rooms, heckling him for walking away.
In the aftermath, Jennifer Griffin of Fox News noted that there were so many lies in what Biden said that there wasn’t enough time to fact-check them all in real-time.
Here’s one of the lies. Or, is it a lie if you don’t know it’s a lie? It’s really hard to separate out Biden’s usual lying from his apparently-increasing cognitive dimness:
For example, Biden claimed he has seen no criticism from our allies of how he withdrew from Afghanistan and the resulting disastrous situation. Further, the president went so far as to claim he had received praise from our allies. But that’s flatly untrue. In fact, things are so bad that the UK Parliament held Joe Biden in contempt two days ago. The Germans have also expressed wide displeasure with how this went down and an EU leader called it a “catastrophe.” Our allies were left in the dark and now they are incensed and scrambling to save their people.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that his handlers are keeping the news from him, thinking it might further derail him psychologically. Does he only read what they provide?
Bonchie closes with this:
At one point, he also forgot who his Secretary of Defense is. In short, we have no president.
Ah, but we do have a president. Unfortunately, it’s Joe Biden – who is grossly incompetent, destructive, addled, mendacious, malicious, and getting worse by the day. And the people who conned the American people (and/or committed vote fraud) to put him there should all be deeply ashamed and say so. But they’re not, and I won’t sit on a hot stove until they do.
I prefer reading about it as well. I derive no enjoyment or enlightenment from watching a flailing, doddering, slightly confused old man attempting to lie and equivocate for several minutes followed by tame questions from a disgustingly pliant media and Biden’s stammering, cringe inducing attempts to answer them (assuming questions are even taken that is). I could think of better ways to spend my time, like driving a thumbtack into the palm of my hand for example.
One might well argue that just as the illegitimate administration’s fully impeachable mismanagement of the southern border represents less incompetence than deliberate and destructive policy, so it might be with the fiasco that is our withdrawal from Afghanistan (this is the position of Lara Logan, who has much experience of that part of the world and wisely fled from the utterly mendacious MSM to the (somewhat) more reliable Fox). Every single overturning of Trump’s “America First” policies in little more than half a year could well be described as being proof of an “America Last” agenda.
patented anger? Remember when the libs said Trump was thin skinned, LOL.
As sad as it is to say, I believe Joey Plugs will skate–politically–on both self-made debacles.
Most Americans don’t:
1.) Know where Afghanistan is.
2.) Know that we do or don’t have troops there or not.
3.) Believe they will be directly impacted by what happens in Afghanistan
4.) Care what happens in the Rio Grande Valley
5.) Believe what happens at the Texas border has a direct impact on their lives.
Some other “shiny object” will come along & the news cycle will move on.
Joey Plugs & his sycophants in the media are banking on it.
If there were no sign that the Afghanistan government was going to just fall and taliban would sweep the country, why was there a need for you to make assurance that Afghanistan was in no danger at all being taken over by the taliban that prompt you deliver the now ominous statement that “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof ” a month ago? Biden is a sociopath, glad the world is slowly catching up to what many of us already knew long time ago.
The LA Times today has two front page stories about how nice the Taliban has been. Here’s one but it was hard to find. No longer front page.
They gave him an energy drink.
The other has vanished.
Found it.
The creepy look of these things just add to the ridiculousness of it all. He takes his mask off and then the others all spaced out with there stupid black masks on. I didn’t watch any of it except the very beginning but did the others ever say or do anything or were they just there to step in if he went totally off the rails?
The difference between this and Trump taking dozens of questions prectically every day never gets old.
nonapod: like you and neo, I normally can’t bring myself to watch these things and prefer to read about them later. But this time I watched part of it. As you suspected, what I saw was a doddering angry old clown, lying and equivocating.
What seemed different to me this time though was the tenor of the press. The questions didn’t seem as tame this time, and there was a lot of angry shouting at Biden when he turned his back on them and left. Maybe they are starting to resent being made fools of.
The Taliban are nice guys, just misunderstood. Once you get to know them you’ll really like them.
The press is turning against Obama.
It’s not only that he’s not answering questions, but the disaster in Afghanistan is so undeniable that Biden makes the press look bad for all the water they have carried for him.
There is no way to restore the “Biden is the responsible adult we’ve been waiting for” narrative.
How does the press cover him and cover for him now?
One of the things Biden said that was really peculiar was his effort to make it seem like he was locked into the Trump agreement to withdraw in May, and that things would have been even worse if he had told the Taliban that we weren’t going to proceed with the withdrawal. But he did in fact extend the withdrawal date to 9-11, and it has been reported that this move was treated by the Taliban as a breach of the agreement, so he lost whatever leverage was negotiated under Trump. Maybe I misunderstood what he said, because it doesn’t seem to make any sense: it’s clear that he very deliberately did not follow the Trump withdrawal plan that he says he “inherited,” and that he now pretends was somehow forced on him.
As someone with a little experience with people in a state of mental decline I suspect his handlers are trying to take the approach of limiting his uncontrolled public interactions because the more of them they have the better the chances one of them will be really bad.
Sometimes circumstances can allow for a person with mild dementia to appear pretty sharp and give the illusion of a much better general condition.
This works when there is no crisis that their media sycophants can’t cover for but now it’s difficult.
And his drop into the White House then go back to Delaware or Camp Davis is very suspicious behavior.
Chris B:
If the press feels as though they have been made fools of, they have no one to blame but themselves. Their cooperation with the Biden coverup and mendacity was voluntary.
This is becoming more and more disturbing. I can’t even take any solice in “being right”. This is far beyond normal political squabling or policy disagreements. To use the parlence of our times, Biden has become a very real existential threat to this country. Not in the long term sense, but likely in the next few months even. I can’t tell if he even actually understands or appreciates the mess he’s created. What will be the next disaster? Because it’s a virtual certainty there will be one as long as Biden’s kept as president.
It’s pathetic. For 4 years straight all the people on the Left, the chattering elite media class, and all the Nevertrumpers, ceaselessly screeched about how Trump was incompetent, crazy, unhinged… or he was corrupt, a puppet of Putin or the Chinese or whomever. But we now have irrefutable evidence that Biden is essentially everything they claimed Trump was. If it wasn’t so scary it’d be funny.
The masks on Harris and Blinken may be just more Covid/Delta theater, but they provide an additional benefit. Their presence deemphasizes how unnaturally immobile and inexpressive Biden’s face is.
huxley,
‘How does the press cover him and cover for him now?’
They just do. It’s a Democrat administration. Not being a smart ass but it’s just that simple sadly.
Nonapod:
He is an “existential” threat, but the threat is not hypothetical nor is it in the future. It’s now. What he did in Afghanistan will undermine and damage this country for years, for decades, perhaps permanently. And it will do the same to the world.
I think that on a certain level even a lot of people in the MSM and the Democratic Party know that. Do the majority of them know it? I doubt it. But a lot do. I hope more wake up to the truth.
https://www.hudson.org/research/17197-counterbalance-ep-24-afghanistan-what-just-happened
Nonapod:
Oh, and I’ve had a draft of a post for a few days and I haven’t published it yet because so much news has intervened. But the theme is that what people feared Trump was, and what they lied about and said he was, is what Biden is – only worse.
It has a dreadful ironic symmetry.
Kash Patel: https://nypost.com/2021/08/19/i-ran-trumps-afghan-withdrawal-bidens-attempt-to-blame-us-is-sad/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
I think that there is a non-trivial segment of the population who are finally realizing that their president is incompetent. There was a Reuters poll yesterday that had Biden at -3, which was a 10 point swing from their previous poll (and that was a poll of adults). He has been underwater in the Rasmussen poll for awhile and his strongly approve numbers are only in the upper 20s, so he has quite a way to go before he hits his floor.
I think this fiasco is taking a toll. It’s hard for me to imagine that anyone thought it would be a good idea for him to go back to Delaware over the weekend. I know he changed plans due to the pressure, but for him to think this was appropriate is pretty much an admission that he is just not up to being president.
They just do. It’s a Democrat administration. Not being a smart ass but it’s just that simple sadly.
Griffin:
IMO this sounds like a shift for the press:
___________________________________________
…for the first time in his presidency, the anger in the room from the press was palpable. As Biden turned his back on the world again, shouts began to ring out from those in the rooms, heckling him for walking away.
___________________________________________
Sure, they won’t start treating him like Trump, but Afghanistan has broken the spell. And it’s likely Afghanistan will get worse.
huxley,
Yes, they are being tougher now but I still think as this crisis lessens or just becomes background noise they will return to their prior resting stance.
Of course, if Biden leaves for whatever reason they will be in love with Harris like nothing we have ever seen. Woman, black etc. tears will flow.
I’ve yet to find a too cynical thought on this particular issue.
I’m actually starting to feel sorry for “Doctor” Jill– I know both of them have plenty of staff to help handle private unpleasantness, but he can’t be easy to live with.
Impulse control is another issue with dementia patients or ‘lack of filter’ as I call it. We all think things that we don’t say to others whether family or publicly. This is another reason why they are trying to limit his public exposure.
Griffin:
The other side is Biden’s decline. It’s not like hiding FDR’s wheelchair. The longer the press covers for Biden’s mental problems and Afghanistan, the worse the press will look later and that’s a possibility they can see coming.
Another side of cynicism is that the press takes care of itself.
As you know, I’m not a big believer in history as a straight line. Things change. Of course, calling the change is a bit tricky.
huxley,
You may be right especially if something goes really wrong (worse than this) that absolutely affects the average person’s life (this issue really doesn’t). That’s the calculus whoever is in charge is doing.
How many people really care about this?
How many people really care about this?
Griffin:
I don’t think people care much about Afghanistan.
But seeing America and its President exposed as pathetically incompetent and several thousand Americans in desperate harm’s way, while the Commander-in-Chief sputters incoherently and blames everyone but himself…
I think Americans, even Democrats, care about that.
huxley,
I don’t think we differ much on all this I’m just so cynical about this that I’m at the believe it when I see it stage.
Re: Biden and the press
I had to laugh when Biden spent a sentence of his speech singling out the NY Times, the WaPo, and the WS Journal and how he went out of his way to rescue those journalists. “Show me some G__ damn gratitude fellas,” he seemed to be saying. Unless of course, you are a journalist not associated with those three outfits.
This is the quote:
In fact, working in close coordination with the management of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, we have successfully evacuated all 204 of their employees in Afghanistan on U.S. military aircraft earlier this week.
I don’t think we differ much on all this I’m just so cynical about this that I’m at the believe it when I see it stage.
Griffin:
I understand. Revising Springsteen, in one of his last songs I liked, I can’t tell my cynicism from my desperation.
_____________________________________
These days I’m feeling all right
‘Cept I can’t tell my courage from my desperation
–Bruce Springsteen, “Local Hero” (1992)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BExTE1vDhxs
“In fact, working in close coordination with the management of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, we have successfully evacuated all 204 of their employees in Afghanistan on U.S. military aircraft earlier this week.”
204.
And you people wonder why the CCP keeps a tight rein on the ‘Press’ 🙂
Tail wag Dog much?
Remember the Maine!
Remember the Holodomor.
The Spanish-American War was a long time ago bozo.
Remember that Biden is a congenital liar. Try to stay on topic.
Remember what you cannot say to keep the CCP happy with thee. Shill for Xi.
@ Om @8:14pm
Your “reply” to Zaphod was unnecessary. I read Neo’s blog a lot, and not just for Neo’s blogging, but for the commentary, as well. To be blunt, you rarely if ever add anything of substance, just snide comments directed at one other commenter. Do you really believe that his “Remember the Maine” comment was about the Spanish-American war? If so, your reading comprehension is junior high level, which I don’t believe. It was just pure invective from you. Or maybe I’m mistaken; maybe it is your level of reading comprehension.
From an everyday reader of Neo’s blog, and an occasional commenter, I want to say that I wish you’d just try to grow up and cut it out.
Telemachus:
“Remember the Maine!”
Was about yellow journalism and the role of the Hearst newspapers in the run up to that war. That is US history.
As if the CCP and its controlled media is a good thing? Who has the reading comprehension problem Telemachus?
Thanks for sharing. You are free to be a fan of Z and to comment or not, it’s neo’s blog after all.
To be blunt.
Om:
I’m neither pro nor con Zaphod, but you’re just a snide flame thrower. Come up with with some original thoughts and a substantive addition to the general conversations on this blog, and stop the sniping, and I’ll start to take you a bit seriously … but only a bit.
Is the Biden charade finally collapsing? Or not? How long can the Democrats and the MSM delude themselves? Indefinitely?
The partisan Democrats in my social circle are pretending it isn’t happening. You remember all that blather about ‘epistemic closure’ 15 years back? It was projection, like every other animadversion they offer.
The other side is Biden’s decline. It’s not like hiding FDR’s wheelchair.
The notion that FDR’s mobility problems were ‘hidden’ is a fiction cooked up ca. 1982 by magazine journalists. The general public knew perfectly well he couldn’t walk. (My mother, who was 8 years old at the midpoint of his administration, knew this and explained it to me when I asked her a question about the March of Dimes).
Art Deco:
My mother, who was fully an adult during FDR’s entire administration, knew a lot about him, and was very intelligent, told me that neither she nor anyone she knew was aware of the extent of FDR’s disability. They knew he’d had polio and they knew his legs were weak, but they had no idea how bad it was. He used to pretend in public that he could walk, with his sons or others supporting him, for example. He would wear leg braces and grip the podium to stand – his upper body was of course very strong. So yes, most people knew he had a serious problem using his legs but had no idea he was basically wheelchair bound.
As I said, my mother described this to me, and it was long before 1982 when she was telling me. What she said about his technique for doing this is congruent with the description in this article.
At the age of 8, perhaps your mother didn’t make much of a distinction between having weak legs and trouble walking and actually being unable to walk. Or perhaps she was just a very intuitive child and sensed – correctly – that he couldn’t walk.
Telamachus:
Oh my gracious, to not be taken seriously by the esteemed Mr. T., that indeed would be a grave mortification. His disapprobation gives me pause! Or not.
You have to get up pretty early to put one over on the diplomats and career foreign service spokesmen at State.
The Cloth Headed Dummy was not truthful yesterday? Shocked!
Are the walls at “foggy bottom” closing in?
See Bonchie at
redstate.com
Here is the redstate.com link.
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2021/08/21/huge-state-department-announcement-shows-biden-lied-and-sends-the-afghanistan-situation-into-code-red-territory-n430643
om:
I have asked you in the past to stop the repetitive snarky sniping. I’m asking you again. I have zero desire to ban you, and I’m not saying snark is never okay. But the ratio of useful meat to snark in your comments is very low these days.
It’s easy for a comment section to devolve into petty sniping and almost nothing else, and I have no interest in having that happen.