Joe's all malarkey all the time
IT feels like yesterday when Joe Biden promised there would be “No Malarkey” in his White House. To underscore the point, he had the words painted in giant letters on a bus he used in 2019.
However you translate malarkey — “bulls--t” is the best option — it’s clear Biden broke his promise there wouldn’t be any. In fact, spreading malarkey here, there and everywhere is the hallmark of his presidency, which is why his party is in a panic.
Of course, Biden was a master of malarkey long before the election. He claimed in 2019 he never spoke to his son Hunter about Hunter’s foreign business entanglements. And in a 2020 debate he insisted, “My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, talking about China.”
BS doesn’t get any thicker than those two lies. Imagine the trick he’ll try when he’s finally asked if he’s the “big guy” in line for a secret 10% cut of a deal with Chinese communists.
The last 16 months have provided endless examples that Biden is All Malarkey, All the Time, but last week was especially pungent. On topics ranging from inflation, the southern border, mask mandates and the war in Ukraine, the president was utterly incapable of giving a straight and honest answer.
Regarding the runaway prices pounding families, Biden did not accept responsibility nor pledge meaningful action. Instead, he shifted the blame game into overdrive.
Buck doesn’t stop here
“Let’s be absolutely clear about why prices are high right now: COVID and Vladimir Putin,” he said in a Wednesday tweet. Soon another followed saying, “I’m doing everything I can to bring down prices and address the Putin Price Hike.”
For weeks, “Putin Price Hike” has been the White House’s go-to response to inflation levels not seen in four decades. It’s an odd choice because trying to shift the blame to a foreign leader contradicts the basic thing Americans demand from their president. As the famous sign on Harry Truman’s Oval Office desk said: “The buck stops here.”
But when Biden says the buck stops with Putin, he’s saying there is nothing he can do about inflation and he’s given up trying. Weakness is generally not seen as a virtue by voters, and this time is no exception.
A late March poll found that 64% of voters blamed Biden’s policies for most inflation, while only 8% said his policies reduced it.
So in terms of stopping inflation and escaping blame, Biden’s baloney is a two-time loser.
Last week brought another malarkey moment, actually two of them, involving the federal judge’s decision that overturned the mask mandate on airlines. Biden first suggested he was fine with the decision, saying “that’s up to them” when asked if travelers should wear masks.
But the next day, his administration said it would appeal the ruling. Then, asked by a reporter about the separate Title 42 issue at the border, which allows the feds to expel migrants who came from countries with communicable diseases, Biden started talking about the mask mandate. Huh?
Later, he issued a statement trying to clarify the confusion he created but still didn’t answer the question about the border apocalypse he’s planning to unleash next month. Even fellow Dems are urging him to reconsider, a belated recognition of how important his open border policies will be in the midterms.
Not incidentally, it’s unadulterated malarkey to say there is no COVID health crisis at the border while simultaneously arguing the crisis is so bad passengers must keep wearing masks on planes. Both can’t be true.
For his latest appearance on Ukraine, the president brought an industrial-grade manure spreader. Against a backdrop of polls showing most voters think he has been too slow to help, he tried to be upbeat as he announced America is sending more military equipment to fend off Putin.
Still playing catch-up
Obviously looking for a rally-around-the-flag reaction, he said several times the United States is leading the NATO effort and that “Every American taxpayer, every member of our Armed Forces can be proud of the fact that our country’s generosity and the skill and service of our military helped arm and repel Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.”
Except it hasn’t really repelled Russia’s aggression, which is still reducing Ukraine’s cities to rubble and slaughtering civilians, and that gets to the heart of the criticism about Slow Joe. Two months after the invasion, which followed months of Russian troops massing on the border, Biden is still playing catch-up.
He calls his latest package of help accelerated, but if this is accelerated, what would pokey look like?
Most important, Biden’s self-congratulatory statement lacked any commitment to Ukrainian victory. Giving our ally just enough aid to keep the war going carries a frightful cost to Ukraine without helping it achieve actual victory.
Indeed, Biden revealed his lack of resoluteness when he said Putin “will never succeed in dominating and occupying all of Ukraine,” an echo of his earlier slip that a “minor incursion” might not bring a Western response.
He also insisted with bravado that Putin is counting on a split of NATO and the European Union “and we’re going to prove him wrong.”
Yet even as the president spoke, reports surfaced that proved Putin right and Biden wrong.
Germany, after earlier sending military equipment, was now refusing to send tanks and heavy artillery that Ukraine desperately needs.
At the same time he was holding back weapons, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz slowed a European plan to boycott Russian oil, infuriating Ukraine and no doubt pleasing Putin.
So that Biden claim of unbreakable Western unity? It was just another tall tale by The Man from Malarkey.