Editorial

KRUTA: Is There Any Job That’s Worse Than Working For Joe Biden’s Communications Team?

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
Font Size:

There may not be any job worse than working for President Joe Biden’s communications team.

Sure, scrubbing down port-a-potties or scraping roadkill off the highway would suck — but Biden’s communications staffers are presented almost daily with the near-Herculean task of cleaning up whatever the president said last; and that might be even worse.

For example, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield spent most of Friday morning trying to explain why Biden had taken a vacation while Afghanistan proverbially burned. He returned to the White House only to scold Republican governors for not forcing children to wear face masks in school and refused to take a single question on the chaos in Kabul.

In the wake of all that, Bedingfield argued that Biden “never shied away from taking questions,” prompting an understandably bewildered look from “Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist. (RELATED: MSNBC Anchor Looks Visibly Perplexed When WH Comms Director Says Biden ‘Never Shies Away From Taking Questions’)

WATCH:

Biden said later that day that no American citizens had been kept from Kabul airport if they were attempting to board a plane and evacuate.

But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted that the opposite was true.

And CNN’s Clarissa Ward, who evacuated after reporting from the ground in Kabul for several days after the Taliban took over, also confirmed that getting out was not easy — or safe — for American citizens.

President Biden also claimed that al-Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan — a claimed that was contradicted almost immediately by the Pentagon.

A short time later, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin that although the U.S. did not have an exact number, officials were aware that both al-Qaeda and ISIS have a presence in Afghanistan.

Biden also claimed he had not heard any negative comments or criticisms from allies concerning the withdrawal of American troops.

But veteran and Member of Parliament Tom Tugendhat disagreed.

The whole of Parliament voted to hold Biden in contempt.

And even former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who often holds his tongue, spoke out about the “imbecilic” manner in which the withdrawal was executed.

Biden’s latest flip came Tuesday, a week after he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that American troops would remain in place as long as there were American citizens on the ground in Afghanistan trying to get out.

WATCH:

But on Tuesday, amid threats from Taliban leadership, Biden said that the U.S. would abide by the Aug. 31 deadline to get troops out of Afghanistan.

And if cleaning up Biden’s claims and flip-flops was not difficult enough, Vice President Kamala Harris is throwing around a few wild claims of her own. She told reporters in Singapore that the rushed exit from the U.S. embassy in Kabul was a “successful drawdown.”

Later that day, during a speech billed as a “major foreign policy” address, Harris discussed how the climate crisis could impact supply chains and shipping with regard to Christmas toys for children.

Clean up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, any takers?