Every now and again, a CNN reporter hits the nail on the head. Journalist Edward-Isaac Dovere, during a recent panel discussion, seemed to accurately sum up the totality of President Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House – especially in light of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Dovere referred to Biden taking yet another vacation shortly before it was time to ride off into the sunset and how Democrats’ losses on Election Day could be affecting him. “I think it’s a really difficult thing for Joe Biden to know that he came into the presidency as a rejection of Donald Trump, and here he is being replaced by Donald Trump,” he said.
The reporter recalled interviewing Biden shortly after he took office in 2021 and noted that he was “trying to assert himself as Joe Biden, the guy who got elected president, not just Barack Obama’s vice president, not just the guy who beat Donald Trump.”
Dovere then noted predicting that if Harris lost the election, “most of the way that Biden is going to be remembered, at least in the short term, is [as] the guy who was just in between the Trump terms.”
The reporter’s prediction is on point, and Biden’s approval numbers show it. The latest RealClearPolling average has Biden at 18 percent disapproval. The president appears to have been checked out for quite a while, having spent almost 40 percent of his entire presidency on vacation.
Dovere’s assertion about Biden being remembered as a placeholder figure between Trump terms is accurate but does not tell the whole story. While the president kept the seat warm for Trump, he made a long list of missteps and bad decisions that will forever mar his legacy.
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You might remember Biden’s botched military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which led to the Taliban retaking power and an entire $7 billion arsenal of U.S. military gear that was left behind during the debacle.
The evacuation effort resulted in the tragic deaths of 13 U.S. service members and more than 170 Afghani citizens during a suicide bombing at Kabul airport.
We can’t forget the ongoing border crisis that began shortly after Biden took office. The president and his team essentially invited the constant influx of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers to the southern border, rightly believing that the red carpet would be rolled out to welcome them.
The subsequent stream of migrants created a tremendous strain on border towns and major cities across the country – especially New York City, which has been struggling to house over 50,000 migrants. The White House’s clear lack of a plan or coherent strategy has only exacerbated the problem. Deadly fentanyl has been trafficked into the country by Mexican drug cartels, taking advantage of the Biden administration’s ineptitude. Scores of Americans have died from drug overdoses after consuming substances that have been laced with the opioid without their knowledge.
On the economic front, Americans have been dealing with ridiculous inflation levels, making it harder for them to purchase groceries and gasoline. This issue, more than all others, contributed to the Democrats’ ignominious defeat on Election Day. Instead of addressing the problem, Democrats chose to lie about it, hoping people would believe the media and not their own eyes. We can already see how that worked out.
In the end, Biden’s tenure in the White House will be remembered as one that elicited relief when it finally ends on January 20, 2025. But he was more than just a placeholder. He was an incompetent chief executive who never had any business occupying the Oval Office in the first place.
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