It takes an awfully momentous week for our two graders to agree, but this was the first one, unfortunately, for President Joe Biden.
That’s because it was an epic failure for Biden, who sold himself as a foreign policy genius and a problem solver with a steady hand. He showed none of that, said our graders.
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Both Democratic pollster John Zogby and conservative analyst Jed Babbin painted a red “F” on the week, highlighting the bumbling in the Afghanistan withdrawal.
“He is being blamed for both incompetence and lying. It does not look like it will be getting better soon,” said Zogby. “If there were a grade lower than an ‘F,’ Biden would have earned it this week,” said Babbin.
John Zogby
Grade: F
The after-effects of the Afghanistan withdrawal are setting in and having a major negative impact on Biden.
Hard to believe that visa processing could not have started months ago and that evacuation could be done so poorly.
Our Zogby Strategies Poll shows that Americans wanted out of there by 49% to 39%, but the scenes are just too hard to watch for many. Biden’s approval polls are now under 50%, and he is being blamed for both incompetence and lying. It does not look like it will be getting better soon.
Unemployment claims were down again but not helpful to people in the supermarket or at the gas pump.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
Starting with his awful Monday speech on Afghanistan, Biden has been trying to duck responsibility and blame others for the debacle he created in Afghanistan.
On Monday, Biden said the only choices he had were to either pull all our troops out of Afghanistan or escalate the war. That was utterly false, as were his claims that the war was a civil war (Russia, Pakistan, China, and Iran have all been funding and arming the Taliban) and that we had accomplished our goals in the war. He also falsely tried to pin the blame on President Donald Trump. He did say that there was no way out that didn’t lead to chaos. That’s certainly true with him in charge. There were several other lies he told, but there’s no room here to catalog them all.
Biden said we have about 15,000 U.S. civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Taliban are blocking their access to the airport from which we’re evacuating people. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “I don’t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul. … We don’t have the capability to go out and collect up large numbers of people.” If he doesn’t, why the hell not? We’re allowing the Taliban to dictate how and when we evacuate our people. They are, in effect, holding thousands of Americans hostage.
The British and the Australians, and even the French, are sending special operations troops to round up their citizens in Kabul and get them to the airport. And we aren’t, which is proof positive of the Biden team’s incompetence. There are about 80,000 Afghans who helped us during the war. They need to be evacuated as well. Nobody in the White House, the Pentagon, or Foggy Bottom has a clue about what to do. It’s amateur hour for the Biden administration.
If there were a grade lower than an “F,” Biden would have earned it this week.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter: @ZogbyStrategies.
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter: @jedbabbin.
