AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Joe Biden's press conference was a disaster on a lot of levels not the least of which was that he revealed how he was all about his own self-interest. Look at this video from a leftist point of view. He's saying that even if he knew that Kamala Harris would do better than him against former President Donald Trump, he wouldn't get out of the race unless he knew he couldn't win — and he claimed no one was telling him that.
My colleague Jennifer Oliver O'Connell reported how against the facts that claim was — that many polls were showing the trouble Biden was in. It's also showing that he really doesn't think Trump is a "threat to democracy" that he claims he is because if Kamala would do better, he should step aside. But he's not doing that. So much for that "threat" when it bumps up against his (or Jill's?) own self-interest.
But how is the Biden team pitching this disaster of a presser? Let's check in with the guy who's always trying to clean up the mess after Biden verbally spills something, White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates. This has to be one of the funniest comments of the night in a night of bizarre, weird, and hilarious moments.
Incredible, isn't it? They're really going to spin this disaster as some kind of a "win" that shows Biden's "chops."
First of all, let's start with the given that no one is asking that question about Biden.
Now, I don't know about Bates. But if you confuse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, you may not be a foreign policy genius. Oh, and not confusing Kamala Harris and your political opponent, former President Donald Trump, might be a good idea, too. He did both on Thursday.
As former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates said several years ago, Biden has been "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy or national security issue over the past four decades." That was said well before he occupied the Oval Office, so add another ten years onto that.
Although there are many things to which one could point, there are a few pictures that I think are symbolic of the failure of Biden's foreign policy.
We can never forget that Biden's foreign policy failures have a very human cost, including the deaths of 13 fine young service members in the debacle of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The families can never forget. But Joe Biden apparently forgot (or never cared about the 13) when he claimed during the disastrous debate that no members of the military have been lost while he has been occupying the Oval Office. Because it's all about him (to him), he can't even mention them by name since it shows his failures. That's despicable.
Maybe also, when you lift sanctions on Nord Stream 2 and talk about how "minor incursions" might not get a big reaction from the U.S., you tend to embolden people like Putin, who then invaded Ukraine.
Then, whatever happened to those American hostages being held in Gaza as Biden keeps throwing Israel under the bus? And let's not forget about the ton of money sunk into the Gaza pier that lasted a couple of weeks only to break apart and have to be removed. But he showed he cared in order to cater to the leftist vote, right?
He's been horrible on foreign affairs. The only question people might have is which he's been worse on since he's also horrible at domestic policy, ringing in crushing inflation and high interest rates.
Now, some in the media are trying to spin it as a win. Dream on. But it may have been enough in the Democrats' minds (because they don't know how to get him out at this point) to keep him in so Trump could beat him. Hopefully, we can survive until then.