The mainstream media has so far had President Joe Biden’s back at every turn, but that appears to be changing as a slew of crises have arisen in the last few weeks.
“Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd said Sunday he thinks the series of setbacks should make people rethink the president.
“I think he’s got a pretty big credibility crisis on his hands,” Todd said. “Because all of these problems, in some ways, showed up after he said something basically the exact opposite.”
Last week, the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border exploded as more than 12,000 foreigners trying to enter America were forced to take shelter under a bridge. Then Biden’s relationship with allies soured, prompting the French president to pull his ambassador from the U.S. — the first time in history that’s ever happened. Then Biden’s top general in U.S. Central Command changed the official story when he acknowledged that a drone strike had killed 10 civilians — including seven children — and not members of the ISIS-K terrorist group.
And as if he needed more bad news, Biden on Friday found out that an independent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee had rejected his push to give COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to most Americans. The vote wasn’t close: The committee of experts voted 16-2 against Biden’s plan. The committee did, however, give a nod of approval to boosters for the elderly and high-risk people.
Now, the MSM is even talking again about Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan withdrawal wasn’t going to be messy,” Todd said. “This wasn’t going to look like Saigon. The booster shots, he came out and essentially said eight months, and even indicated maybe we should start it as soon as five months. Now we’re not sure if anybody under 65 is going to get a booster shot.”
Biden is scheduled to speak at the U.N. general assembly this week, and Todd said the speech will be huge. “He’s got a lot of work to do,” Todd said. “The U.N. speech, look, he’s got credibility issues on the world stage to make sure people still view America as — not just a stable democracy — but a competent leader of the free world right now.”
Others who appeared on Todd’s show also questioned Biden. Todd asked Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason about the mood in the White House.
“It got a lot worse on that Friday afternoon with all those things happening in one day. The mood is one of soldiering on. I mean, they’re certainly embattled right now. But this White House has said from the beginning Joe Biden can chew gum and walk at the same time and all the people around him can do the same,” Mason said.
“But certainly, some of these crises are not ones they expected. I don’t think they expected to see one of the U.S.’s oldest allies recalling its ambassador. So, they’re soldiering on, they’re trying to say we’ve got this, we’re going to roll through it. But it’s a tough time,” he said.
This article has been revised for clarity.