Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen claimed Tuesday that President Joe Biden was focusing on Hurricane Ida because it was the only disaster not of his own making.
Thiessen and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany joined host Martha MacCallum on Fox News’ “The Story” to discuss the president’s dipping poll numbers. (RELATED: ‘Absolutely A Lie’: GOP Rep. Says State Department Tried To Sabotage Afghanistan Rescue, Then Took Credit When It Worked)
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MacCallum introduced her guests and mentioned the ongoing efforts to get American citizens and Afghan allies out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, asking McEnany whether she thought the Biden administration would be able to steer the media away from that story and onto something that was more favorable for the president.
“No, they won’t be able to,” McEnany replied, saying that it was very telling to see officials refer to the Taliban as “Afghan partners.”
“He won’t be able to turn from this. He’s trying to distract us. You know it’s bad when he’s distracting us with inflation and a COVID resurgence. That’s what he’s trying to do,” McEnany continued. “They’re trying to flip the scripts but they will not be able to. Polling shows Americans care too much deeply about this.”
MacCallum turned the question to Thiessen, noting that Biden’s poll numbers had dropped off just since June.
“He’s trying to focus on the storm because it’s the only disaster he didn’t create. The southern border, he created. Afghanistan, he created. The COVID response, right now he’s creating. So of course, he wants to shift the blame,” Thiessen replied. “He’s not going to be able to shift the blame because of the subject — because Afghanistan is not going to cooperate.”
Thiessen went on to say that the first hearings on what went wrong in Afghanistan were set to begin in the next few weeks — and added that the issue was likely to bleed into discussions on domestic policy, like the upcoming defense spending bill.
“Finally, Afghanistan is not going to cooperate, because one, we have hundreds of Americans — at least 100 Americans — and certainly thousands of American allies and permanent residents who are trapped behind enemy lines by the choice of the president. He ordered the last plane to leave knowing that they were left behind enemy lines,” Thiessen concluded. “Now they’re hiding and as he goes to Ground Zero to celebrate — or to mark the anniversary of 9/11 — while the bells are ringing at Ground Zero, they’re going to be hiding from Taliban death squads because of Joe Biden.”