This week, the United States saw the most American troops killed in a single day in ten years and the first U.S. death in Afghanistan in 18 months after two suicide bombings took place outside the Kabul airport, killing dozens.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has seen his approval ratings drop to dismal lows as even the normally friendly media and many prominent left-wing figures alike slam him for the royally bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Yet on Friday, when faced with urgent questions from a group of reporters on the crisis as well as the 13 American service members killed in Thursday’s deadly blasts, what did Biden do as his handlers herded the media out instead of letting him answer any of the queries? He laughed.
As the questions about the dire situation in Afghanistan were hurled his way by the clamoring reporters, he reverberated with satisfied chuckles, like a mall Santa watching a group of little kids waiting eagerly in line to sit on his knee and recite their carefully crafted Christmas list by rote (which, it must be noted, sounds like a situation Biden would enjoy considerably more than being POTUS).
Biden laughs as he has his staff herd away reporters shouting questions about Afghanistan and the 13 US service members who faced death at the hands of terrorists yesterday.
This is sick. pic.twitter.com/hc5nuYceOv
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 27, 2021
We’re asking this question entirely too much lately: What on earth is the president thinking?!
Putting aside entirely the major issues that Biden has as it is with talking to the media, we can certainly acknowledge that there are times the president’s handlers are going to need to herd the media pool away.
Biden was at the time meeting with an important head of state, the new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in a face-to-face that had already been delayed following the Kabul blast.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the two leaders had never met, and likely had a private meeting to return to at this moment.
Yet as he was fielding last-minute questions from reporters on a deadly attack that took 13 American lives and resulted in as many as 170 Afghan deaths, in the middle of what was already a dangerous crisis that could leave hundreds of American civilians stranded behind the enemy lines of the Taliban, Biden just … chuckled.
This is not leadership.
The bizarre display also comes one day after Biden very weirdly hung his head in his hands for a number of very long seconds in the midst of a back-and-forth with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy who asked to what degree his administration bears the blame for the carnage in Kabul.
If this picture was Biden mourning the loss of life in Afghanistan, I wouldnt be bothered by it. In moments of tragedy, a person in power showing real human emotion can be calming, but that's not what it is. It's his reaction to a difficult question from the press. It's awful pic.twitter.com/AOz4pdpHJD
— Sophia (HaRMful SaTiRe) Narwitz (@SophNar0747) August 27, 2021
All week, as hundreds of American civilians remain in the country following the Taliban takeover, the president, the State Department and the Pentagon have faced urgent questions from the media and the public over the chaotic last-minute scramble to conclude the withdrawal by Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline.
On Thursday, after the explosions outside the Kabul airport, Biden waited a full eight hours to address the nation — and when he did, he tiredly recited teleprompter comments that sounded like they’d been badly plagiarized from a post-9/11 speech from former President George W. Bush before appearing to give up entirely in the middle of his exchange with Doocy.
Friday wasn’t even the second time he’s laughed inappropriately while facing scrutiny for his incredibly unpopular handling of the withdrawal.
On Monday, when asked by a CBS News reporter about his slipping poll numbers, Biden reacted with snarky, condescending laughter when told that a majority of Americans no longer considered him “competent” for the job.
Perhaps he’s picking up the habit of awkwardly timed laughter from the better half of the “Biden-Harris” administration, Vice President Kamala Harris, that is, who has a very strange proclivity for cackling laughter when faced with a tough question about a sobering topic.
In fact, Harris herself also burst into bizarre laughter last weekend when asked about Americans stranded in Afghanistan.
WATCH: Kamala Harris laughs when a reporter starts to ask her about Americans trapped in Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/7863Seq36C
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 22, 2021
What is wrong with this administration? Is this callousness, utter incompetence or both?
Via The Western Journal.