Surging inflation and the chaos and deaths of 13 U.S. troops in Afghanistan produced a second horrible week for President Joe Biden and more poor-to-failing grades in our Weekly White House Report Card.
At the end of the week, there was a slight recovery when the Pentagon struck at a likely Islamic State planner of Thursday’s suicide attack at Kabul’s airport that killed the Americans and injured nearly 200. Also, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated that high inflation will not last.
But by then, the damage had been done, and the week was dominated by the struggles in Afghanistan.
Conservative analyst Jed Babbin, grading an “F,” judged simply, “Biden lied and Americans died. There’s nothing else to say.”
Democratic pollster John Zogby followed last week’s “F” with a “D” this week and said that the president is in danger of a polling “free fall.”
Jed Babbin
Grade F
For the second week in a row, Biden’s incompetence and lies have created chaos and disorder in Afghanistan. This week, his actions caused the deaths of 13 Americans: 12 Marines and a Navy medic.
Biden continues to repeat the lies he’s told for weeks. He continues to contend that he had no choice other than deciding between withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan and escalating the war. He contends that terrorism has metastasized around the world, creating greater threats than we now face in Afghanistan. And he insists that the war will be over when the last U.S. soldier leaves.
Biden’s team is relying on the Taliban for security around Kabul’s airport, the result of which was the massive suicide blast at one of the airport’s gates that took American lives, almost 200 Afghan lives, and caused many more to be wounded, some gravely. The death toll from that incident may rise. The person in charge of the Taliban security in Kabul is a senior leader of the Haqqani network who has a $5 million bounty on his head for terrorism. Biden’s team is, as his remarks on Thursday confirmed, providing lists of Americans and Afghan allies to the Taliban on the presence that they have an interest in seeing us get out by his Aug. 31 deadline.
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) August 26, 2021
Biden said that we would continue to try to get Americans out after the end of August when our troops finally depart. That’s impossible to do unless we leave special operations forces, airpower, and intelligence in Afghanistan — and that Biden is dead set against doing.
How dare he fail to get every U.S. citizen out of Afghanistan? What purpose is served in tucking tail and running simply to meet his entirely artificial deadline? Those left behind, as well as the Afghan allies left behind, will be held hostage or killed by the Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS-K, and whatever other terrorists are flooding into Afghanistan. It is a bitter thing to see an American president who is so unaware of his duty to his fellow Americans, so ignorant of the enormous threat we suffer from Afghanistan-based terrorists and so incompetent in protecting our national security.
Biden lied and Americans died. There’s nothing else to say.
John Zogby
Grade D
Biden’s approval rating continues to slip. His approval is now at 47%, disapproval 48%.
These are not devastating, but they do indicate two things. The first is that his honeymoon is over and that the president will be viewed less favorably for a while. The second is that he has to guard against a free-fall. He can slip out of a real funk with some positive achievements on infrastructure and climate change. He will have to pressure Democratic centrists to support his initiatives to save his presidency and their chances for 2022.
But, in addition to having to put the Afghanistan mess in the past, he now faces renewed chaos and violence from forces that even the Taliban cannot control. Does the United States go back in? Or does it stay with the program and leave now? These are very bad choices.
He is also facing renewed inflation, the worst in 30 years, serious natural disasters, a California recall that can severely hurt the Democratic Party, and an opposition party that has no program but can still win elections. These are tough times for both Biden and for the rest of us.
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
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
