The United States is supposed to have a “special relationship” with the United Kingdom. Even though we fought the British for our independence, things tend to patch themselves up over 239 years; now we view London as our dignified older brother who’s fallen on hard times, while the Brits still view us as the rambunctious younger sibling that runs the family business.
However, there’s nothing rambunctious nor young about our current president — and even the press in Britain seems to be noting that Joe Biden is in the soup, as the Limeys are fond of saying.
In a commentary piece published Saturday, U.K. Telegraph associate editor Camilla Tominey called Biden “useless” and “nasty” and asked: “Are his outbursts a product of his age — or simply a display of his character?”
Tominey began by noting former President Barack Obama urged Democrats not to gravitate toward his vice president as a presidential pick, warning them: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f*** things up.”
“Indeed, it’s no secret in Washington DC that Obama privately lobbied for Biden not to run for the Democratic nomination in 2016, making way for Hillary Clinton,” she wrote.
“We have spent the past couple of years learning why the former president seemed so determined,” she continued, adding that Biden’s “qualities for the Oval Office are almost non-existent.
“From losing his train of thought mid-sentence to forgetting one of his own congresswomen had died in a car crash, the 79-year-old has hardly proved to be the answer to America’s crisis of confidence.”
“Jackie, where’s Jackie?,” Joe Biden says about Rep. Jackie Walorski who died in a car accident a few months ago. pic.twitter.com/khdiesmEsx
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 28, 2022
Tominey also blasted Biden’s recent hot-mic gaffe in which he told the mayor of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, that “nobody f***s with a Biden,” calling it “Trumpesque misplaced macho.”
WARNING: The following video contains graphic language that some viewers will find offensive.
Biden says on hot mic: “No one fucks with a Biden…” pic.twitter.com/Oo814Z8JY1
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 5, 2022
“It followed hot on the heels of the president calling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a ‘stupid son of a b****’ at a White House press conference earlier this year when he deigned to ask him whether ‘inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms’. (Inflation in the US is soon expected to reach 8 per cent),” she wrote.
She added that while his party had struggled to portray Biden as a “carefully cultivated cuddly figure … there seems to be a rather nasty side to Sleepy Joe.”
“This is the man, let’s not forget, who accused all Maga (Make America Great Again) Republicans of being ‘semi-fascists’, and who responded to questions from the BBC with ‘I’m Irish,’” she noted, concluding these were “the rantings of an intolerant, stuck-in-his-ways old man who can’t abide anyone who disagrees with him.”
It’s worth noting the Telegraph tends to be a right-ish publication, although one that’s certainly not usually prone to airing sentiments like this. Think of a watered-down, more centrist English version of The Wall Street Journal with a bit of the ol’ British “Oh, dear me” tact.
In short, “useless” and “nasty” aren’t usually words splashed across its pages — and usually, they’d be deployed against figures like Vladimir Putin.
Do you think Biden’s outbursts are a display of poor character?
Instead, the U.K. press can see what famous fictional Britisher Basil Fawlty would refer to as the “bleeding obvious” — our president is a mentally diminished man who lashes out like an injured dog when he faces the slightest breeze of resistance. (Even the Guardian, a leftier, New York Times-esque British publication printed a report from Washington back in January acknowledging, grudgingly, that Biden is “one of the most unpopular US presidents.”)
This is the international crowd that Biden was supposed to woo. They were the ones who were supposed to realize his election meant that “America is back at the table,” as Biden is fond of saying.
Instead, they view him as noxious political flotsam. This is how our “leader” is perceived, even by those who don’t like “Trumpesque misplaced macho.” If this is what being back at the table looks like, it’s time for America to think about replacing the guy in our seat.
