Biden just had his worst week as president yet
Associated Press/Evan Vucci
- It's been a difficult week for Biden between the chaos in Afghanistan and rising COVID-19 cases.
- Biden has defended his decision to withdrawal troops despite the resulting chaos in Afghanistan.
- Meanwhile, his approval rating dropped below 50% for the first time since he entered the White House.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
President Joe Biden just faced one of his toughest weeks as president yet with pandemonium in Afghanistan, skyrocketing COVID-19 cases, and a declining approval rating.
Roughly a month after Biden forcefully defended his move to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, expressing "trust" in the capacity of the Afghan military to keep the Taliban at bay, the militant Islamist group marched into Kabul on Sunday. The Taliban had rapidly seized major cities over the course of the prior week, often without much of a fight.
The militants regained control of the country just days after the US military assessed that it would take up to 90 days for Kabul to fall.
The Biden administration was ultimately forced to admit that it got it wrong, and was caught competely off guard by the blistering pace of the Taliban's advance.
Harrowing scenes have followed the Taliban takeover - including Afghans falling from US military planes as they desperately sought to flee the country. The US sent 6,000 additional troops into Afghanistan to help with the evacuation, more than twice the number that were in the country when Biden announced the withdrawal. There have been numerous reports of people facing harassment from the Taliban as they attempt to reach the Kabul airport, though the militants promised to provide civilians safe passage out of the country.
-CNN (@CNN) August 20, 2021
Biden has continued to forcefully defend the pullout despite the chaos that's unfolded. In a speech to the nation on Monday, Biden said, "I stand squarely behind my decision."
The president went on to blame the situation on the Afghan government and military, despite expressing confidence in the same forces just weeks ago. "So what's happened? Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight," Biden said.
Biden during the speech said "the buck stops with me," even as he pointed the finger at others for the debacle in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the president has faced bipartisan criticism he's faced for not taking earlier steps to help Afghans that assisted the US throughout the conflict - a group that's especially vulnerable to reprisals by the Taliban.
"I've been very clear that I agree with the president's decision to withdraw. I think it was the right one. And actually, the events of the last couple of weeks show that this was not a military fight that we could win," Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, told NPR this week. "But I have also been very clear that I think that this needs to be done better, that it's not going well and that we need to make a commitment to do it right and use the full power and force of the US military and the resources that are at our disposal to get it done the right way."
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina went as far as to threaten Biden with impeachment in relation to the pullout. The GOP has seized the opportunity to use the mayhem surrounding the withdrawal to portray Biden as incompetent, while conveniently leaving out the fact the deal to pull US troops was broked by the Trump administration in February 2020.
Polling suggests Biden's handling of the withdrawal has led to a drastic decline in support for the pullout.
Back in April, almost 70% of Americans supported withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan, but support dropped all the way down to 49% this week, per Morning Consult/POLITICO polling.
Beyond Afghanistan, the US has seen a massive spike in COVID-19 cases.
The highly contagious Delta variant and low vaccination rates in many parts of the country, which are in no way a consequence of a lack of availability, have hampered Biden's ambitious goals in terms of squashing the virus in the US.
-Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) August 20, 2021
"The latest data that confirms we're still in a pandemic of the unvaccinated," Biden said during a speech on Wednesday. "Cases are still rising ... Quite frankly, it's a tragedy. There are people who are dying and who will die who didn't have to." The president during his remarks announced a plan for every fully vaccinated adult to get a booster shot eight months after their second shot, while continuing to implore the unvaccinated to go get the shot.
As his administration contends with crises at home and abroad Biden's approval rating dropped below 50% for the first time, according to the FiveThirtyEight and Real Clear Politics polling trackers.
Biden's FiveThirtyEight average approval declined to 48.9% as of Friday, while his disapproval rating sits at 45%. Similarly, Real Clear Politics' average of polls on Friday showed Biden's approval rating at 48.6%, with a dissaproval rating of 48.2%.
The honeymoon period is officially over.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/2Xyrnsn
No comments