There is need to beat a dead horse regarding our humiliation in Afghanistan—the hasty retreat, the desperate refugees clinging to the last planes out of Kabul, the billions of dollars of weapons that were left behind for no reason (other than to provide a new slush fund for D.C.’s military-industrial campaign contributors). Think of the $1 trillion borrowed and spent and the trillions that will be owed in interest for a war that took 20 years to lose (and the one-third of your work-life the government confiscates, in taxes, to obtain those trillions). Consider the tens of thousands of Americans killed and maimed after it was already clear that both Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda had decamped from Afghanistan and that there was no reason for us to be there.
As a rule, the press pins failures of this magnitude either on a Republican president, during Republican administrations, or on faceless, nameless low-level bureaucrats, during Democratic administrations.
But this week, we’re seeing something very strange: The leftist media is blaming Joe Biden for the Afghan calamity. That’s actually what CNN’s homepage was calling it, as of Tuesday afternoon (August 12)—”Biden’s Afghan Calamity.” Another headline reports that Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is calling for the 25th Amendment to be invoked and for Biden to be removed from office. Another says “Biden owns the mess he created”; another, “Afghanistan’s collapse was not pre-ordained.” On MSNBC’s homepage, the top headline says “Biden’s hope for Afghanistan isn’t a strategy.”
Leftist anchormen across the broadcast and cable networks are blaming Biden. CNN’s Jake Tapper asked “How did President Biden get this so wrong?” NBC’s Savannah Guthrie called the Afghan withdrawal a fiasco and a debacle, and then played clips of Biden saying Kabul wouldn’t turn into Saigon. Biden says, “There’s going to be no circumstance where you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy of the United States in Afghanistan”; Guthrie follows up, “and yet that’s precisely what we have seen over these last few days.”
So what’s going on? Has the leftist press finally grown a spine, or a sense of right and wrong? On the contrary: The sudden and complete reversal of the press’s attitude towards Biden looks a lot like the media have received new marching orders, and permission to criticize the president.
Kamala Harris has been entirely offstage during the humiliation in Afghanistan, and the subsequent humiliation of Joe Biden. Biden himself may have been utterly surprised at what happened in Afghanistan, but the people who are actually running the country and calling the shots—whoever they may be—knew exactly what they were doing.
Imagine, for a moment, that you’re running the Democratic party. Biden obviously is too senile to continue as figurehead much longer. Kamala is the least popular vice president in a generation. You want Biden gone, and you want an alternative to Kamala for 2024.
You’d start by allowing an incredible catastrophe to happen. And then, when Biden most needs the support from the press that he’s so used to getting, you’d yank that support out from under him. Bring out calls for a full investigation (the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed by a Democrat and controlled by Democrats, yesterday announced a full bipartisan inquiry). The object is forcing Biden to resign.
Then Kamala would be elevated to the presidency—and the VP spot would be vacant, giving the Democrats a chance to pick a new, less-hated leader to become VP. The new VP would be perfectly positioned to run for president in 2024, replacing Kamala at the top of the ticket.
Per the 25th Amendment, when the VP spot is vacant, “the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority of both Houses of Congress.” Right now, the Democrats could get essentially anyone they want confirmed by both houses. Without Kamala as Senate president, the Senate would be a true 50-50 split, but the Romney-Murkowski wing of the GOP can be counted on to confirm whomever Kamala might appoint.
Republicans, by echoing the calls for investigation and resignation originating from the Left, have yet another chance to play right into Democrats’ hands, helping make room for Biden and Kamala’s successor.
After 2022—no matter how hard they cheat—the Democrats are very unlikely to keep control of the House. So if they want to keep the 2024 presidential election within reach—if they want to keep Trump from returning to the White House, and more than anything in the world, they do—they have to move fast. The first step will be getting rid of Biden.
And it looks like the ejection of Biden may already have begun.