Not for the first time, Joe Biden was late for his own press conference. Before he got round to Afghanistan, he wanted to deliver an update on his administration’s response to Tropical Storm Henri, which had earlier made landfall in Rhode Island.
The President had just been briefed by the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. ‘I can’t think of anyone better to lead this operation than, er, um, er . . . ’ he mumbled, as he hastily consulted his notes.
Biden couldn’t even remember the name of the woman in charge of FEMA, someone he had been speaking to just a couple of minutes earlier. Not only that, she was sitting in front of him.
The President is refusing, presumably because his close associates aren’t even confident that he can remember his own name these days
A baffled Biden had to reach into his jacket pocket and fish out a fistful of cue cards before he could read his answer
Kamala was last seen in public hiding behind a black facemask at a press conference alongside Biden. It was as if the Taliban had taken Washington, as well as Kabul
Millions of television viewers saw Sleepy Joe experience yet another embarrassing senior moment.
This latest lapse of memory was reminiscent of the scene during a presidential visit to a Michigan farm shop recently. The female assistant behind the ice cream counter asked him a fairly straightforward question about Russian cyber hacking.
A baffled Biden had to reach into his jacket pocket and fish out a fistful of cue cards before he could read his answer.
While conservative news outlets such as Fox made fun of the President, the overwhelmingly pro-Democrat mainstream media gave him a free pass.
But now, as I wrote here last Tuesday, even the patience of anti-Trump TV channels and newspapers has evaporated.
Since the fall of Kabul, Biden has come under attack from both sides of the political divide. His fitness for office is being openly questioned.
It’s not only card-carrying Republicans calling for his resignation, although there are plenty of them around right now. Perhaps the most prominent, and best qualified, is Texas congressman Ronny Jackson.
A retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, Jackson was appointed to the White House medical unit by George W. Bush and served as official physician to Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
Back in October last year, during the presidential election campaign, Jackson stated publicly about Biden: ‘I am concerned that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive ability, to serve as our commander-in-chief and head of state.’
After Biden’s initial bumbling response to the Taliban takeover, Jackson tweeted: ‘If he’s not mentally capable of handling this crisis, he needs to resign IMMEDIATELY.’
Fourteen Republican members of Congress have written an open letter demanding that Biden takes a formal cognitive ability test, which Trump passed in 2018 after the Democrats accused him of senility.
An evacuated resident, wades through high water following a flash flood, as Tropical Storm Henri makes landfall, in Helmetta, New Jersey
Biden’s betrayal of all those who have fought, died or have been gravely wounded in Afghanistan has been compounded by him leaving America’s allies — primarily the British military — high and dry. (Afghans near the military airport in Kabul)
The President is refusing, presumably because his close associates aren’t even confident that he can remember his own name these days.
Biden’s overall approval ratings have now fallen below 50 per cent, which is par for the course in a country which remains bitterly divided. More significant was an NBC News poll showing that six out of ten think he’s screwed up in Afghanistan.
Over the past week, I’ve spoken to Americans from all walks of life and political affiliations, including a former marine who served three tours of duty in Afghanistan, and an ex-New York fireman who took part in the Twin Towers rescue and lost two close friends on 9/11.
However they voted last year, and no matter how badly they wanted the troops out of Afghanistan, they have all been fiercely critical of the manner of America’s chaotic withdrawal. That the world’s foremost military superpower has been humbled by a bunch of cavemen with AK47s is a source of abiding shame.
Whichever way Biden and his few remaining apologists try to paint it, there’s no escaping the fact that the scuttle from Kabul is a humiliating defeat.
The Taliban is now dictating terms. American citizens stranded in Afghanistan can’t even get through to the airport.
Meanwhile, Biden’s critics can’t avoid contrasting the siege of Kabul airport with the ease with which millions of illegal immigrants are able to flood across America’s southern border.
The anger and bewilderment has been reflected by former Biden cheerleaders in the Left-leaning American media, who have been unable to conceal their disappointment in the President and his administration.
Biden’s betrayal of all those who have fought, died or have been gravely wounded in Afghanistan has been compounded by him leaving America’s allies — primarily the British military — high and dry. Boris Johnson will try to talk him round in a Zoom call today but is probably on a hiding to nothing.
Despite declaring that America was back on the world stage, Biden has walked away. The former marine I spoke to is not alone in wondering whether the sacrifice of the past 20 years was worth it.
The biggest worry for Americans now is that there’s still at least three and a half years of the Biden presidency. Millions of people agree with physician Ronny Jackson’s diagnosis.
What they see on their TV screens is a decrepit 78-year-old President seemingly in the advanced stages of senile dementia.
When I watched his shambolic press conference on Sunday, the tune ringing in my head was the 1966 novelty hit by Napoleon XIV:
They’re coming to take me away, Ha-Haaa!
But even if the men in white coats come calling for Biden, what next? No one can seriously welcome the prospect of his Vice President Kamala Harris replacing him.
Last week, I described her as ‘giggly’. On Sunday, she proved me right yet again, dissolving into manic laughter when reporters tried to question her as she descended from a plane in Singapore. You’d never guess that she used to be considered a shrewd public prosecutor.
She was last seen in public hiding behind a black facemask at a press conference alongside Biden. It was as if the Taliban had taken Washington, as well as Kabul.
As a couple, they looked like Lord and Lady Gaga.
Don’t forget, either, that Harris was the first Democrat ejected from the primary race to choose the party’s presidential candidate last time around.
The Democrats, and by extension America, are hardly spoiled for choice. There’s no princeling Bill Clinton or Barack Obama on the immediate horizon
That was after she accused front runner Biden — the man she now understudies — of being a racist.
Yet today she’s a heartbeat away from the presidency, a frightening prospect. Some Democrats are said already to be plotting ways to stop her succeeding Biden as Commander-in-chief.
But if not Harris, then who? Third in line under the constitution is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the Wicked Witch of the West.
At 81, she’s even older than Biden and was last spotted, as Kabul fell, at a $29,000-a-plate fundraiser under the Californian sun.
The Democrats, and by extension America, are hardly spoiled for choice. There’s no princeling Bill Clinton or Barack Obama on the immediate horizon.
Meanwhile, gloating in the wings at his Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, is one Donald J. Trump, still maintaining that the last election was stolen from him and threatening to run again in 2024.
The last thing a divided and wounded America needs is a re-run of the Trump circus. Probably the Republicans would be best served by choosing a new young candidate such as Florida’s impressive 42-year-old governor Ron DeSantis. But he’ll only get the nod with Trump’s blessing.
For now, the U.S. — and what remains of the free world — is lumbered with Sleepy Joe, a man so befuddled that he’ll probably turn up late for his own political funeral.