President Joe Biden got elected largely because millions of voters found him caring and empathetic. Mr. Nice Guy, the argument went, would be a welcome relief from the sometimes abrasive and combative President Donald Trump.
Yet as the president retreated from Kabul, to the beat of the Taliban’s drummer, Nice-guy Joe morphed into Mean Mr. Biden.
The president’s true colors now shine with searing clarity. He has exposed himself as calculating, callous and cruel.
Reuters reported Tuesday that Biden spoke by phone on July 23 with his then-counterpart in Kabul. According to a leaked official transcript, Biden told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani: “I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban.” Biden added, “whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”
These astonishing comments unmask Biden as a calculating, global-grade liar.
Biden pushed Ghani to project toughness, “whether it is true or not.” Rather than actual fortitude, Biden pressed Ghani to practice strength-signaling: Fool the world by appearing powerful, even as Afghanistan crumbled.
- “Mr. President, if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the deadline, what will you do?” NBC News’ Peter Alexander asked Biden Aug. 25. “You’ll be the first person I’ll call,” Biden quipped.
- On Sunday, Biden irritated the Gold Star families of the 13 US service members murdered by an ISIS-K suicide bomber on Aug. 26. Meeting behind closed doors at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base, Biden reportedly spoke to these survivors at length about his late son Beau, who served honorably in Iraq, not Afghanistan. He died tragically at age 46, but of cancer, not combat. Biden’s dwelling on his own son backfired on multiple levels when he should have comforted these grieving survivors.
- At the “dignified transfer” ceremony that followed in Dover, Biden checked his watch multiple times, thus deeply dishonoring the GIs whom terrorists had slaughtered just three days earlier. Biden’s sign of disrespect further wounded their loved ones, as their flag-draped caskets were escorted from a C-17 transport plane.
- Runaway Joe repeatedly has refused to answer journalists’ inquiries about this life-and-death matter. On Sunday, Biden visited FEMA headquarters during Hurricane Ida.
“I’m not supposed to take any questions, but go ahead,” Biden said.
A newswoman began, “Mr. President, on Afghanistan —”
“I’m not going to answer Afghanistan now,” Biden snapped in disgust. He then wheeled around and left his podium.
- Monday evening, Kabul time, US forces withdrew fully from Afghanistan. “No American citizens came out on what we call the last joint tactical mission — last five jets to leave,” Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr. explained, adding, “none of them made it to the airport and were able to be accommodated.”
- Biden never deployed US GIs to collect Americans and whisk them to the airport, as British and French troops did for their countrymen. Biden never cleared a corridor into the airport, so Americans and allied Afghans could enter safely. And Biden’s deputies in-country reportedly handed the Taliban the names of Americans and Afghan allies en route to the airport and on flight manifests out of Kabul.
The Taliban — heavily re-armed with US weapons that Biden neither extracted nor destroyed — now can abuse this information to torture and/or execute those who never made it out or the associates and relatives of those who did.
Never mind! Biden tone-deafly declared America’s chaotic, disgraceful, deadly exit “an extraordinary success.”
- Biden’s public schedule for Wednesday: Meetings on the economy, Hurricane Ida and US-Ukrainian relations. Afghanistan? Nope.
- Thursday: Remarks on natural disasters, followed by zero questions.
Days after shouting at his fellow Americans about decamping Kabul in shame and leaving hundreds of his constituents behind, Mean Mr. Biden has moved on.
Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor and a contributing editor at National Review Online.