OPINION:
How would you like to be on the janitorial team that has to perpetually clean up President Biden’s dangerous statements? The communications-gaffe cleanup crew must be the biggest squad of workers in the Biden White House.
In the days just passed, Mr. Biden has implied that America will use chemical weapons against Russia, that American troops will be deployed in Ukraine to fight Russian invaders and that Mr. Putin needs to be booted. A trifecta of talk that diminishes the value of diplomacy with Russia to deescalate the Ukraine-Russia War, while making America the target of derision around the world.
Crazy “Uncle Joe” doesn’t just have a propensity for the malaprop, he has increasingly developed into a verbal time bomb that periodically explodes, leaving the nation vulnerable to the fallout of his deteriorating oratory and mental skills.
When Mr. Biden became president, many who voted for him did so because they thought he had a nicer “tone” than former President Donald Trump. “No more mean tweets,” was their mantra. As they watch the havoc imposed on America by a doddering, incompetent like Mr. Biden, they surely must have buyer’s remorse.
When he isn’t blowing up the American economy, Mr. Biden is bringing the world to the brink of a general war, the likes of which haven’t been experienced since World War II.
As the anti-mean tweeters believed, rhetoric matters. And, when Mr. Biden gets behind the wheel of the communication bus, it is always just a matter of moments before he drives America over the cliff with some outrageous comment or another.
We’ve moved beyond the delusional lies about a childhood gang encounter with “Corn Pop,” or children playing with the hair on his legs. This isn’t some juvenile claim to having been a driver of big rigs.
No, what Mr. Biden is doing is single-handedly bringing America’s international reputation from the position of strength it occupied during Mr. Trump’s term, to making us irrelevant and weak.
And, that is dangerous. A weak America breeds violence and conflict in the world. Strong leaders with malevolent intentions inhabit the real world. When a strong American leader like Mr. Trump confronts a Vladimir Putin, a Kim Jong-un, a Xi Jinping, or the ayatollah, they know he means business.
When a barely coherent American leader like Mr. Biden engages internationally, the whole world laughs. Or worse, takes U.S. weakness as an opening to pursue objectives that produce conflict.
After indicating that the U.S. would respond to the potential Russian use of chemical weapons by using chemical weapons, national security adviser Jake Sullivan tried to clean it up by saying, “The United States has no intention of using chemical weapons, period, under any circumstance.”
Is Mr. Biden or Mr. Sullivan the president? Will we use chemicals? One hopes not.
Mr. Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a butcher and it intoned that Mr. Putin cannot remain in power. The spin cycle of the White House cleaners went kablooey. Their explanation that Mr. Biden only meant that Mr. Putin shouldn’t be a regional leader was as mixed up as their boss. Even French President Emmanuel Macron called out Biden’s inflammatory remarks.
After telling U.S. troops in Poland that some of them would be on the ground in Ukraine, the White House walked that back: “The president has been clear we are not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position.”
But, that’s just the point. The president’s relentlessly reckless statements are not clear. They are muddy and at times, incoherent. And that makes him dangerous.
No amount of post-Biden-statement cleanup can repair the damage of Mr. Biden’s intemperate, unfocused outbursts.
Betcha would prefer the international stability, low inflation, American energy independence and border security that accompanied a few “mean tweets” over the devastation engendered by a “nice” mentally deteriorated Biden.
• U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District.
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