Mark August 15 as the day that Joe Biden lost the media. Nine months after the election, they have stopped carrying the president’s water.
CNN’s Jake Tapper was the first crack in the dam.
Tapper brought on Secretary of State Antony Blinken and stared in seeming horror as Blinken deflected questions and repeatedly said the U.S. accomplished what it came to do in Afghanistan.
Tapper refused to accept the party line and hung Biden, the man the media desperately tried to convince the public was the saner, more civilized solution to Trump, out to dry on his Sunday show.
“President Biden ordered 2,500 servicemen out [of Afghanistan] and now is sending up to 5,000 service members back in,” Tapper said. “Does that not on its face show that the exit was ineptly planned? And again, look you told me again a few months ago on this program that you thought it was entirely likely that the Taliban would be taking over the country . . . but President Biden just last month said ‘the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. . . .’ He was wrong.”
It may seem ill-conceived to give Tapper or any other media elite too much of a pass for one shining moment of what some might describe as “doing their job” — but perhaps the grace period between Biden and the press is over.
Politico reported: “President Joe Biden long touted his foreign policy credentials as a core asset he’d bring to the oval office. And once he was in the White House, he proudly proclaimed ‘America is Back’ on the world stage. Instead, chaos and confusion dominated his first major foreign policy decision.”
The Wall Street Journal piled on: “President Biden’s statement on Saturday washing his hands of Afghanistan deserves to go down as one of the most shameful in history by a Commander in Chief at such a moment of American Retreat.”
Even MSNBC dominated its site with attacks on Biden. On Tuesday morning, the top story’s headline read: “Unfortunately for the FBI, Biden’s hope for Afghanistan isn’t a strategy.” On Monday, MSNBC’s top headline read: “Biden’s Disastrous Afghan Charade.”
The hits just kept on coming.
Unlike Trump, who seemed emboldened by the media attacks and took on the press with passionate vigor, it will effectively be the end of his presidency if Biden completely loses the media. Biden is not emotionally or mentally strong enough to withstand an adversarial press’ constant arrows and questions.
CNN, MSNBC, and countless others will be forced to admit what many silenced voices have been screaming the whole time.
It’s not just a stutter — the emperor has no clothes.
Whoever is guiding the Biden administration will inevitably try to shift the blame on this. And indeed, there is blame to go around after nearly two decades in Afghanistan. Bush and Obama couldn’t finish the job, and Trump, who questioned never-ending wars, did not fully complete the mission.
Trump had drawn down the American presence to 2,500 troops with a goal withdrawal date of May of this year. Biden withdrew those final troops before our Afghan allies or translators, and prior to ensuring weapons, drones and aircraft remained in the proper hands. (Aside: How do we consistently wind up arming our enemies on the way out?)
The final images coming out of Afghanistan were young men holding onto a C-17 aircraft as it took off and falling to their death rather than stay behind in the country America helped mold and create.
The lessons in Afghanistan are long.
It is foolish to assume another culture wants what we have — or that we can bomb a nation into oblivion and simply restore trust and good will amongst the people through food drops or universities ready to provide their first master’s degrees in gender studies.
In Afghanistan, we were the occupiers, and we learned again that destroying a nation is entirely different than rebuilding one. You can be America First, think the U.S. needed to exit Afghanistan, and still understand that what transpired was an unmitigated, avoidable disaster.
Biden’s ill-conceived, backward exit assured a vacuum — one that the Taliban have already filled.
The Afghan people deserved better than this. The young American men and women who fought for nearly 20 years after their nation called on them post 9/11 deserved better than this.
What does this mean for future generations of our country’s military? It is hard to see how this does not damage military recruiting for the next generation.
A coworker of mine served in Iraq and Afghanistan. When he came to work Monday morning, I asked him if he was upset about the news coming out of Afghanistan.
“Oh I’m pissed,” he said. “Everything we did over there feels like a waste right now. My buddy and best friend in boot camp died over there.”
While Afghanistan fell to pieces, our current president was nowhere to be found. CNN reported that we should expect something from Biden in the next few days. Press Secretary Jen Psaki, conveniently enough, also announced she would be “out of the office.”
Someone must have let Biden know that simply telling the press that the president was on vacation and that he would reemerge in a few days was not palatable. Late Monday morning, Biden’s social media accounts announced he would speak to the nation later that day.
Biden took no questions after his speech — it is doubtful he had the right answers. He repeated the Blinken line that we finished what we came to Afghanistan to do. Mission accomplished. Biden painted a false choice: get out entirely, or escalate troop numbers and fight the Taliban.
As he walked silently off the stage, the press shouted questions: “What do you think of the Afghans clinging to aircrafts?”
The honeymoon has ended. The wolves have returned.
Like any paper tiger, Biden needs the added glitz and glam of the camera to pull off the fake tough guy act. Without the press’ cooperation, it could be curtains for Biden as they turn on him.
As far as I am concerned — let the wolves have him.
