OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A Republican lawmaker said Friday that Joe Biden should not get a pass on his policies because he’s “old and feeble,” adding that he is certain the president “knows what he is doing.”
Rep. Darrell Issa of California said during a Fox Business interview Friday morning after Biden’s Wednesday press conference that the president is “doing exactly what he wants to.”
“Well, I think it was best said in his own press conference,” Issa said. “If you have no apologies that means you did it deliberately. If you have no apologies that means you meant to do it.”
“The president meant to let more than a million people illegally into the country because it was good for future Democratic votes. He meant to disrupt the supply chain because he thought he could blame the [former] president. He meant to withdraw clumsily from Afghanistan because he believed he could blame his predecessor. And this list goes on,” Issa continued.
“This is a presidency that a lot of people keep thinking, ‘Oh, he’s out of touch. Poor Joe is so old.’ No. Joe Biden is doing exactly what he wants to do,” the California Republican continued. “He surrounds himself with people who support those policies. And those policies are destroying America.”
Issa’s remarks appear to be in response to Biden’s comments on Wednesday in which he said, “I make no apologies for what I did” in regard to the handling of the withdrawal of Afghanistan.
Issa also noted that the rate of inflation under Biden has skyrocketed to a four-decade high last month, the ongoing issues with the supply chain, and the massive migrant surge last year that continues to be a problem after Biden reversed most of former President Donald Trump’s border enforcement policies on his first day in office.
The GOP lawmaker also said that for decades, Biden “assumed that you could essentially export U.S. jobs and it was OK,” likely a reference to his support for old trade agreements like NAFTA, which many have blamed for a loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, though Trump renegotiated that trade agreement during his tenure (USMCA).
“[Biden’s] always been protecting union jobs but export a lot of jobs to offset it. Those policies are really at the core of who he’s been…These policies are consistent with it, and there are conflicts,” Issa said.
“But the most important thing is it’s a conflict with his pledge to protect and defend America from its enemies foreign and domestic,” Issa continued.
“He’s not doing that at all and this is not an accident. Please, Maria, don’t give him a pass because he’s old and feeble. He is doing this, he knows what he’s doing, and he has to be stopped,” the lawmaker told host Maria Bartiromo.
There have been questions about Biden’s mental fitness for more than a year, beginning well before he was elected in November 2020, including this week during Biden’s Wednesday press conference.
Some diplomatic and foreign policy experts were stunned, for instance, when Biden suggested that NATO allies were not unified on how to respond to a Russian invasion of Ukraine if it was only seen as a “minor incursion.”
“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we have to fight about what to do and not to do,” Biden said. “But if they actually do what they’re capable of doing with the force amassed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine.”
“There are differences in NATO as to what countries are willing to do, depending on what happens, the degree to which they’re willing to go,” Biden added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky clapped back, however, saying that he wanted “to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones.”
“Unbelievable,” a former senior U.S. official told the Washington Examiner. “Acknowledging it is Putin’s to decide. Ceding him the initiative. Differentiating between an incursion and an all-out invasion, and suggesting our response would be different. Talking about differences among allies rather than conveying unity and resolve. And ultimately saying that he thinks Putin WILL go in because he can’t back down now.”
The former official added that “jaws must have been dropping in both Moscow and Kyiv.”
