“Why do you suppose such large segments of the American electorate have come to harbor such profound concerns about your cognitive fitness?” NewsMax reporter James Rosen asked President Joe Biden during a press conference today.
“I have no idea,” Biden answered.
In a rambling and incoherent press conference, only the second during the year of his presidency, Biden was asked again about his competency, “From the messy rollout of 5-G this week to the Afghanistan withdrawal, to testing on Covid, what have you done to restore Americans’ faith in the competence of government? And are you satisfied by the view of the competence of your government?”
Biden answered: Look, let’s speak to Afghanistan. I know you would like to focus on that, which is legitimate. We were spending $1 trillion a week … I mean $1 billion a week in Afghanistan for 20 years. Raise your hand if you think anyone was going to be able to unify Afghanistan under one single government? It’s been a graveyard of empires for a solid reason — it is not susceptible to unity, number one. So the question was, do I continue to spend that much money per week in the state of Afghanistan knowing the the idea that being able to succeed other than sending more body bags home is highly, highly unusual.”
“My dad used to have an expression. He’d say, son, if everything is equally important, nothing is important to you. There is no way to get out of Afghanistan after 20 years easily. Not possible. No matter when you did it. I make no apologies for what I did. I have a great concern for the women and men who were blown up on the line at the airport by a terrorist attack against them. But the military will acknowledge and I think you will know lot about foreign policy, the that had I not pulled those troops out — we would be asked to put somewhere between 20,000 to 50,000 more troops back in because the only reason more Americans weren’t being killed and others is because the last president signed an agreement to get out by May 1. And so everything was copacetic. Had we not — copacetic. We would be putting a lot more forces in. Now do I feel badly what’s happening to — as a consequence of the incompetence of the Taliban? Yes, I do.”
But, he said, he also feels badly about what is happening in the Eastern Congo, and a whole range of things around the world, “that we can’t solve every problem, and so I don’t view that as a competence issue.”
He also said the 5-G rollout was not a competence issue. “I don’t view that as somehow a mark of incompetence.”
He doesn’t see his Covid policy as incompetent, either.
“Look, think what we did on Covid, when we were pushing on Astrazeneca to provide more vaccines. Well, guess what, they didn’t have the machinery to be able to do it, so I physically went to Michigan, stood there in a factory with the head of Astrazeneca and said, ‘We’ll provide the machinery for you. This is what we’ll do. We’ll help you do it so you can produce this vaccine more rapidly.’ I think that’s pretty hands-on stuff.
“I think you have to look at things the way we used to look at it on balance. What is the trajectory of the country? Is it moving in the right direction now? I don’t know how we can say it’s not. I understand the overwhelming frustration, fear, and concern with regard to inflation and Covid. I get it. But the idea, if I gold you when we started — I tell you what I’ll do in the first year, create six million jobs, I’m going to get unemployment down to 3.9%, I’m going to generate and name it all, you’d look at me like I’m nuts. Maybe I’m wrong.”
Reporter Peter Doocy asked Biden why he is trying so hard to pull the country so far to the left.
“I’m not,” Biden responded.
Biden also said Russia President Vladimir Putin will probably invade Ukraine, and doesn’t think the United States or Europe can do anything about it.
“Do I think he’ll test the West, test the United States and NATO, as significantly as he can? Yes, I think he will,” Biden said. “But I think he will pay a serious, and dear price for it that he doesn’t think now will cost him what it’s going to cost him. And I think he will regret having done it.”
When the reporter asked to clarify if an invasion is likely, Biden answered, “My guess is he will move in. He has to do something. I probably shouldn’t go any further. But I think it will hurt him badly.” He suggested Putin might be able to get away with “a minor incursion.”
