President Joe Biden’s ability to empathize provided a contrast between himself and the brash, unpolished former President Donald Trump.
But with at least 13 Americans and almost 100 Afghans dead after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in a crowd outside Kabul’s airport, Biden will discover whether the public really wants a consoler in chief.
‘TOUGH DAY’: BIDEN TRIES TO CONSOLE GRIEVING NATION AFTER US TROOPS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
Biden has overcome an enormous amount of tragedy in his life, according to Aaron Kall, University of Michigan’s debate director and author of a book about State of the Union speeches.
“This has enabled him to express a tremendous amount of empathy, which has also been politically advantageous throughout his career,” Kall told the Washington Examiner.
But Biden’s botched withdrawal of U.S. military personnel and equipment from Afghanistan ahead of his Aug. 31 deadline has severely tested that narrative, Kall contended.
“President Biden had much greater success connecting with families and loved ones over the coronavirus pandemic, which is a once-in-a-generation event which he’s not directly responsible,” he said. “President Biden has had strong opinions about Afghanistan policy for over a decade but is finally in the position to execute them and bears all the surrounding responsibilities.”
Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, agreed Biden’s response to the Afghanistan attacks required more than consolation.
“As consoler in chief, he is very good at that,” he said. “When he went to Florida when the building collapsed. He certainly has got credentials as someone who himself has been on the other side of consoling. But this is a very big story.”
Biden is, unfortunately, familiar with loss. Biden’s first wife Neilia and their 1-year-old daughter Naomi died in a 1972 Christmas car crash, weeks after winning his first election to represent Delaware in the Senate. In 2015, Biden, by that time remarried to first lady Jill Biden, lost his and Neilia’s eldest son Beau to cancer. Beau Biden was 46.
The president has not shied away from discussing their deaths. Since his inauguration, for instance, Joe Biden has mentioned Beau by name almost two dozen times.
Joe Biden evoked Beau Biden this week when he addressed a nation grieving its deadliest day in Afghanistan since 2009. Beau Biden, a former Delaware attorney general with presidential ambitions of his own, served in Iraq for a year as an Army major.
“We have some sense, like many of you do, what the families of these brave heroes are feeling today,” Joe Biden said in the White House’s East Room. “You get this feeling like you’re being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest. There’s no way out. My heart aches for you.”
The following day in the Oval Office, Joe Biden similarly described mourning Beau Biden as “like being sucked into a big black hole in the middle of your chest” and “you don’t think there’s any way out.” The president deferred questions regarding Afghanistan until after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
But during his East Room remarks, to which he was 25 minutes late, Joe Biden’s memories of his son did not seem to shield him from his critics, enraged by his handling of the withdrawal.
A myriad of Twitter users tweeted the same phrase: “It’s not about you.”
Likewise, a photo of Joe Biden bowing his head as he listened to a reporter’s question was mocked on social media for projecting defeat.
Republican strategist Matt Whitlock tweeted: “A defining image.” Florida GOP state Rep. Anthony Sabatini wrote: “It’s time for Biden to resign.”
To be fair, the president borrowed from George W. Bush’s addresses after the 9/11 attacks almost 20 years ago when he vowed to avenge the dead.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said.
But Biden’s grace period appears to be coming to an end, based on his approval ratings. The public sentiment concerning him as consoler in chief may be better understood through polling that examines whether respondents believe Biden “cares about people like you.”
An Economist/YouGov tracking poll published after Afghanistan’s collapse captures a dip in Biden’s “cares about people like you” numbers. The poll found 45% of respondents believed Biden cared about them, while 46% did not. Another 9% were not sure.
In January, the same poll found that 52% believed Biden cared, 42% did not, and 6% were not sure.
For Kall, Biden was unable to lead a moment of national unity after the Afghanistan attack because it undermined the logic of his withdrawal. The withdrawal had been pitched, in part, as an attempt to protect troops, according to Kall.
The Afghanistan attack was launched after Biden had already been criticized for not being at the White House when the Afghan government imploded, Kall said.
“A reset is necessary to regain the mindset and demeanor from the campaign or early months of his presidency,” he added.
Thompson adopted a wait-and-see approach to how the Afghanistan attack will affect the rest of Biden’s term.
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“Far be it for me to predict what this story does to his presidency. I don’t think people changing their opinions about him as a consoler is going to do that, however,” he said. “The Afghanistan thing and this are two different things.”
