National Review’s Jim Geraghty has a new piece out titled, “Something Is Wrong with the President,” and oh boy is it a must-read:
Something Is Wrong with the President – @jimgeraghty examines the interview against other things we know. Not good … https://t.co/g0uJtwqwws
— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) August 19, 2021
Geraghty did a thread on the article for those that want the TL;DR version:
First up, only two calls with world leaders in the past 10 days:
According to White House public records, Biden has had two phone conversations with foreign leader in the past ten days — one with Boris Johnson and one with Angela Merkel.https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
“No public events on his schedule for today”:
As of this writing, Biden has no public events on his schedule for today. He is scheduled to receive the PDB and meet with his national-security team. According to the FAA, Biden is scheduled to return to his house Delaware today.https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
And he’s “barely appearing in public”:
Biden is barely appearing in public, not saying much of anything when he does, not answering any questions outside of his lone scheduled interview, and sounding angry and indignant when he did face questions from Stephanopoulos.https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
He contradicted himself multiple times in his interview with ABC News:
Biden began the interview by insisting that the intelligence community had given him unclear answers about the state of the Afghan military and government, contradicting what he said about the intelligence on July 8.https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
And:
Then during the Stephanopoulos interview, Biden insisted that he himself had predicted that the Afghan government would collapse by the end of the year: "Well, by the end of the year, I said that’s that was — that was a real possibility.”https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
He either doesn’t remember what he said or he’s gaslighting us:
The president either does not remember what he said on July 8, or he is simply trying to gaslight everyone into believing that he did warn of the Afghan government collapsing – the opposite of what he actually said.https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
This is . . . really bad:
“That was four days ago, five days ago!” Biden interjected.
It was two days ago, but that’s not really what is important; what is spectacularly odd is that Biden is reacting as if he thinks Stephanopolous was bringing up irrelevant ancient history. https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
Now, there’s nothing wrong with pointing this out. Families all across America go through this every day with elderly relatives:
Biden is now insisting that the chaos of a Taliban takeover was inevitable, even though he stood before the country on July 8 and specifically assured the country that the Taliban takeover was not inevitable.https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
At some point, Dems need to start asking questions, and soon:
Biden also insisted that, contrary to published reports, his military advisers did not recommend keeping 2,500 troops in the country. "No one said that to me, that I can recall.”https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
And the White House should move to clean this up, if they can:
There are meeting notes that can be declassified. We can see if Biden’s advisors really did urge him to keep 2,500 troops there, or if they are lying.
Or if Biden genuinely does not remember what was said and recommended to him in a meeting months ago.https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
Again, there’s nothing embarrassing or humiliating with having to face this:
The president turns 79 in November. He last released a summary of his health condition in December 2019. In May, a White House spokesman said Biden had not had a medical checkup or taken a physical this year, but that he would by the end of the year.https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
Because it’s more than this:
Back on July 26, John Ellis astutely analyzed how it was acceptable to acknowledge Biden’s age and mental condition if you used certain gentle euphemisms: “He’s lost a step or two.”“He’s lost something off his fastball.”https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
In summary, “Something is wrong with President Biden, and we are all being asked to pretend to not notice”:
Something is wrong with President Biden, and we are all being asked to pretend to not notice.https://t.co/Ai0VMgQeIj
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 19, 2021
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