President Joe Biden has managed to keep his raucous caucus in line and loyal to him for most of his first seven months.
But one disaster changed that overnight.
He’s being called out by members of his own party… both anonymously and by name… for an absolute failure to anticipate the crisis in Afghanistan.
“I am bewildered and frustrated and, privately talking to a lot of House Democrats, they feel the same thing,” an unnamed Democratic member of Congress told The Hill.
Just last month, Biden called a rapid Taliban takeover “highly unlikely.”
Some in his administration said it would take years for the hardline Islamic extremists – known for the brutal interpretation of “sharia” law and alliances with terrorist organizations – to take over the nation after U.S. forces left.
Instead, they took over in a matter of days, overrunning major cities in some cases within hours.
Democrats slammed the massive intelligence failure… and not all of them did it anonymously like that lawmaker who spoke to The Hill.
Emboldened party leaders see a weakened president – and are rapidly moving to distance themselves from him.
“I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal,” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a news release. “We are now witnessing the horrifying results of many years of policy and intelligence failures.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who will face voters next year in a tight race that could determine who controls the Senate, told The Hill that “the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan reveals a failure to prepare for a scenario where the Afghan government and military would refuse to fight the Taliban’s advances when put to the test.”
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who served as a Marine officer in Iraq, said he called on the Biden administration to evacuate allies for months, only for his pleas to fall on deaf ears.
“To say that today is anything short of a disaster would be dishonest,” he said in a statement. “Worse, it was avoidable.”
And Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, wrote in Foreign Policy that the situation was a “catastrophe” and hit Biden with what might be the toughest line of all for someone on the left.
He compared him to Trump.
“This negligence was par for the course for the last U.S. administration,” Langevin wrote. “I am disappointed to see it now.”
He added:
At minimum, the Biden administration owed our Afghan allies of 20 years a real plan. They also owed it to our military service members and their families, particularly the men and women in uniform and their families who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Not to mention the women and girls of Afghanistan who are now experiencing a devastating new reality.
Beyond the optics… beyond leaving Americans in limbo, and loyal allies under threat… there’s another issue that’s causing Democrats to abandon Biden: Voters aren’t happy.
A new Yahoo/YouGov poll finds 48 percent Americans now disapprove of Biden on foreign policy, versus 36 percent who approve.
They were almost evenly divided on the issue just a month ago, 42-41.
Another poll from The Hill found 57 percent say the U.S. didn’t do enough to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies, while 53 disapprove of his handling of the situation overall.
That’s having a domino effect on his total approval rating, which was already in free fall.
FiveThirtyEight’s average has him down below 50 percent for the first time in his presidency, a drop of 3.6 points in the space of just a few weeks, and a plunge of nearly 6 points since May.
With the midterm campaigns about to begin in swing, Democratic candidates might not be asking for Biden to come and speak on their behalf.
Instead, they might beg him to stay isolated.
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert.