During President Joe Biden’s “big boy” news conference on Thursday — the White House staff’s words, not mine — he was supposed to come across as the guy in control.
The event was ostensibly to be one about the NATO conference in Washington this week, but the real subtext was about Biden saving his hide as more and more Democrats call for him to step aside as their party’s presidential nominee following the brutal June 27 debate against former President Donald Trump and a series of similarly bad appearances on his rehabilitation tour.
This time, he called on a list of pre-selected questioners — quelle surprise — who were a bit tougher than usual, if just because they can no longer lob softballs at the president.
One of the questions, roughly 20 minutes into the briefing, dealt with reports that the Biden administration was considering letting the Ukrainians use American weapons to strike Russian targets deep in Russian territory.
The U.S. has let the Zelenskyy government in Kyiv use American weaponry in the battle against the Russian invasion, but only to strike invading forces. Striking within Russia itself is a whole different beast, and would require approval — and an about-face — at the top levels.
Thankfully, Biden assured us that someone was on top of it. If he only knew who.
“The question is, what’s the best use of the weaponry he has and the weaponry we’re getting to him,” Biden said.
“I’m following the advice of my commander in chief, my — my, my, of the chief of staff of the military, as well as the secretary of defense and our intelligence people.”
Just one problem with that statement, and it’s not the “childhood stutter“: Joe Biden is the commander in chief of the U.S. military.
BIDEN: “I’m following the advice of my commander-in-chief” 😳 pic.twitter.com/FdspE1UIQf
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 11, 2024
Well, one would hope those discussions with himself prove fruitful.
Here’s the full context, just in case you’re curious. No, this is not a “cheap fake” in any way:
This was one of several gaffes during the debate, most notably at the start of the Q-and-A when he confused his vice president and his presidential rival, answering a question about Vice President Kamala Harris by saying, as The New York Times reported, “I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she’s not qualified to be president”:
The reaction from Biden’s team when he called Kamala “Vice President Trump”
ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS 🤣😂💀 pic.twitter.com/WLSFD2vDYp
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 12, 2024
And yes, that moment was far funnier than Biden forgetting that he is the commander in chief and that he wasn’t consulting with himself. (Or else admitting what we know, for all practical purposes: That he isn’t the one calling the shots these days.)
However, this is a bit more serious on the Richter scale of bad-viral Biden moments in terms of how it might come back to bite us in the hinder.
When reports began to trickle out in May that the Pentagon and the State Department were considering changing the terms of use of American missiles in Ukraine from a mostly defensive role to an offensive one inside Russia, we didn’t hear too much from Biden on this one.
Instead, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at an event in Moldova, carefully noted the proposed shift in policy, saying Kyiv “has to make its own decisions about the best way to effectively defend itself. We’re going to make sure that it has the equipment it needs to do that.”
“Another hallmark of our support for Ukraine over these, now, more than two years has been to adapt as conditions have changed and the battlefield has changed, as what Russia does has changed in terms of how it’s pursuing its aggression and escalation,” he added.
Do you think Biden is really in charge?
“We’ve adapted and adjusted, too, and I’m confident we’ll continue to do that.”
That said nothing about missiles staying wholly within the confines of Ukraine, target-wise, so much as it could be helped. Instead, it was a hint that we’d give the Ukrainians free rein to fire away — a go-ahead the more hawkish French government of Emmanuel Macron has already given.
France isn’t quite at the same level of concern that the United States is in these circles, however, and Vladimir Putin might not unreasonably see the deployment of U.S. missiles on Russian targets as an escalation in the war between Russia, Ukraine, and NATO’s biggest power.
Another little bit of restraint thus goes out the window for the Russian leader, who must see the Ukraine fighting as existential for his regime Moscow at this point. We see it as a matter of making victory as expensive as possible for Russia, meanwhile. That goes out the window once a wider war begins.
But rest assured, Joe Biden is on top of it. He’s getting advice from the top men in his administration, including the “commander in chief.” Too bad nobody asked him a follow-up question as to who the commander in chief is.
