Tucker: Biden is losing the ability to regulate his emotions
Fox News host reacts to Biden going off script to criticize Putin on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
Joe Biden announced he was running for president again in April of 2019. It was Biden's third or fourth attempt at the office, depending how you count. So, at that moment, most Americans thought they knew who Joe Biden was. After 50 years in office, they were familiar with his face, but it turns out they weren't familiar with his new face.
Two months later, Biden appeared on stage in Miami for the first Democratic primary debate and he was hard to recognize even for people who had known him. Extensive plastic surgery made him look like a different person, but most jarring was the fact that he did not sound like the old Joe Biden. You probably remembered Biden as blustery and jovial, Irish charm by the bucket load. He was famous for that. And yet, on stage, Biden came off as remote and muted.
He seemed to be at times afraid to speak for fear of tripping over words or forgetting them. Several times the camera caught him just staring out into the middle distance. He was apparently absorbed in memory. When Biden did manage to focus his attention, he seemed highly annoyed. Whatever the cause, Democratic primary voters were not impressed by his performance. Joe Biden's numbers dropped 10 points overnight. Now, the Biden campaign has never explained what exactly happened to Joe Biden that night in Miami, but whatever it was, it never got fixed. It continues. From that day until now, probably the most authentic feature of Joe Biden's public performances has been his anger. It seems to come over him in waves.
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President Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, March 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN YELLING AT REPORTER: Focus on this man (Trump) and what he's doing, that no president has ever done—no president!
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN CHASTISING REPORTER: No, I haven't taken the test. Why the hell would I take a test? Come on, man. That's like saying, you know, before he got in this program, you take a test where you're taking cocaine or not. What do you think, huh? Are you a joke?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AT PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: I'm not out of time. You spoke overtime and I'm going to talk. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. The fact of the matter is, look at what's happening here.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN SNAPS AT SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Well, that's not true. You're saying things, you do not know what you're talking about. No one said that. Who said that? Who said that?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN TO MAN AT TOWN HALL: You said I set up my son to work in an auto company. Isn't that what you said? Get your words straight Jack.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN EXCHANGE WITH PETER DOOCY: That's a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a b----.
President Joe Biden speaks during a media conference, after a NATO summit and Group of Seven meeting, at NATO headquarters in Brussels (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
So you know exactly what that is. You've seen it in people around you, people you love. It has nothing to do with politics. What you just saw is a man who is losing the ability to regulate his emotions. Uncontrollable flashes of anger are common among people who are aging, particularly among men, and they often accompany senility. Losing it is a very frustrating experience and your heart goes out to anyone who is.
We have deep sympathy for anyone in that position, including Joe Biden, but Biden is the president of the United States, and this is the single most volatile moment in the recent history of our country. Biden is leading the U.S. toward war and so it's fair to assess the effect on the rest of us of his mental and emotional conditions, not simply about age, Biden is 79. Biden is clearly unable to speak with precision and when you're president of the United States and the world hangs on your every word, when your words constitute American policy, when you can change American policy, particularly America's foreign policy, simply by saying so, it is essential that you speak the words you intend to speak, that you not get carried away because you're mad and say something you don't mean that might threaten the long-term interests of this country, threaten the families and the children of the rest of us and our future, but he is.
That's exactly what he's doing. That's not a partisan attack. It's true. If you doubt that it's true, watch his performance just over the past week. On Thursday, for example, Joe Biden was asked how the United States would respond if the Russian government used chemical weapons in Ukraine. Now that's a hypothetical question. Presidents at the podium often get those. Presidents rarely respond to hypothetical questions for a very simple reason. They don't know the circumstances ahead of time, so there's no reason to risk American prestige or to terrify the rest of the world by saying the wrong thing. So, they don't. Biden had no obligation to answer that question. Very few presidents would have answered it, but Biden did answer it and here's what he said.
REPORTER: And to clarify on chemical weapons: If chemical weapons were used in Ukraine, would that trigger a military response from NATO?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: It would trigger a response in kind; whether or not you're asking whether NATO would cross, we'd make that decision at the time.
So he's closing his eyes trying to remember what the cue card says. What's our policy? And when he comes out with is if Russia uses chemical weapons, the U.S. will respond in kind. If Russia uses new chemical weapons, the United States will use chemical weapons.
So, no American president has said anything like that in your lifetime. You grew up assuming the United States would never use chemical weapons because the United States is not a rogue state. In fact, our role globally is to suppress rogue states. They tell us that's what we're doing right now and yet in a flash of pique, because he couldn't remember the correct words, Joe Biden, the president of the United States, reversed 100 years of American security policy in the middle of a war.
This did not escape the attention of his own national security adviser, who instantly responded by restoring the status quo or attempting to, "The United States has no intention of using chemical weapons, period, under any circumstances," said Jake Sullivan, flatly contradicting his boss. No one who works for the president wants to do that, but Jake Sullivan had no choice.
He works for a man who cannot even pronounce his own vice president's name consistently and yet is in charge of the United States at the most delicate moment in our lifetimes, but Biden didn't slow down. He kept going. The next day, his advisers allowed him to fly to Poland to "rally the international community in support of Ukraine," and while in Poland, Biden met with soldiers from the 82nd airborne. They're currently stationed there. As cameras rolled, Joe Biden informed these soldiers that they would soon be sent to Ukraine.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The average citizen, look at how they're stepping up, look at how they're stepping up, and you're going to see when you're there, and some of you have been there, you're going to see, you're going to see women, young people stand in the middle in front of a dammed tank saying, "I'm not leaving. I'm holding my ground."
So the previous president was often criticized, sometimes with justification, for not using words precisely. You're the president, you can't just tweet out anything. That's the case you heard for four years and again, it was often rooted in truth, but the last president never said anything that even approaches the crazed recklessness of what you just heard.
"You're going to see when you're there." Where? In Ukraine. So, the 82nd airborne apparently is going to Ukraine. Their commander-in-chief, just told them that. Of course, they had no idea. Neither did their families. Neither did anyone in the United States until Joe Biden said it live on Friday. The White House didn't even know. Fox News reached out to Biden's spokesman after those remarks and no one there, no one in the White House, seemed aware that those remarks have been caught on tape.
So, how to explain this abrupt change in American foreign policy? "The president has been clear we are not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine, and there is no change in that position." So, for the second time in three days, the administration has to flatly contradict the commander-in-chief and not on a minor question. These are often written off as a gaffe. No, a gaffe is when you mispronounce somebody's name. Telling troops they're going to be sent to Ukraine, pledging the United States is going to use chemical weapons--these are not gaffes. These are something else.
They're dangerous, that's for sure. So, the best the White House can do is telling us, "Well, the president, by saying he's sending American troops to Ukraine, is reaffirming our policy of not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine." Thanks for the clarification. What else could they say? And it got even weirder from there.
On Saturday, once again completely out of nowhere, with no warning whatsoever and apparently no forethought, Joe Biden called for regime change in Russia. Watch this.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase the people's love for liberty. Brutality will never grind down the road to be free. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.
Doing his Churchill routine, fine. When things aren't going well at home all presidents seek solace abroad, where they're taken much more seriously than they are by their own voters, but he couldn't stop himself. "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Joe Biden said of Vladimir Putin. Now, set aside how you feel about Putin. You probably don't like him and for good reason. Our policy, according to the president of the United States, is to take Putin out, to remove him as head of state.
BIDEN ASSERTS PEOPLE LIKE PUTIN ‘SHOULDN’T BE RULING COUNTRIES,’ BUT US POLICY IS NOT REGIME CHANGE
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a cabinet meeting via video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
To be clear, regime change in Russia has never been American policy, and this is hardly the first time we have tangled with Russia. We've had far more threatening circumstances than this one. The United States, you'll recall, waged a proxy war against the Russian government for 11 years in Vietnam. Nearly 60,000 Americans died in that war, and yet no American president mentioned regime change at the Kremlin. Why? Because they were soft on the Russians? No, because Russia has about 6,000 nuclear weapons.
So, let's say we eliminated the Russian head of state and of course, that country's central government. What would happen to those weapons? Well, let's see. In Iraq, Saddam's weapons stockpiles, all conventional, wound up in the hands of militia that use them to kill Americans. So, Russia has a large and restive population of Islamic extremists. Do we think it's possible that with no one running the country, because of course, we have no chosen successor to Putin, is it possible, if we did that, that one of those 6,000 nuclear weapons might wind up in the hands of some anti-American terror group and be used against our civilian population here? A nuclear weapon!
Well, that's not just possible, it's likely and that's if we were to succeed in killing Putin. What if we don't kill Putin as apparently is now our policy? The president of the United States just informed the Russian government that he seeks its overthrow. So, you have to ask yourself: Does hearing that make Vladimir Putin more or less likely to use a nuclear weapon against the United States and Western Europe? Hmm. How to trapped animals behave? Well, they lash out with fangs and claws. Desperate people are dangerous people, of course.
So it would be in the interest of the United States, and that's the only interest that matters from our perspective, to cool the rhetoric a little bit. Or when you employ overheated rhetoric, to do it for a reason, in the service of a clearly articulated goal that helps the United States and not just because you're old and pissed, which is exactly what you just saw—a guy who just lost control of what he was saying because he was too mad.
It's all pretty obvious. No one in Washington has spent 30 seconds thinking about what would happen if we knocked off Putin or if we talk about knocking off Putin. In fact, our foreign policy establishment spent the weekend congratulating Joe Biden on saying the wrong thing. They compared him to Ronald Reagan. Washington loves regime change. It's what comes after regime change they'd rather not consider and have no track record of pulling off, but for now, they were thrilled.
Bill Kristol compared Biden's threat to Reagan telling Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" because everything in D.C. is cliché based. Rick Wilson agreed, "Biden did 'tear down this wall' for our era." Again, the cliches. Dumb people speak and think in cliches because they have no other terms at hand. Former White House correspondent CBS News Mark Knoller said Biden was even better than Ronald Reagan, "tops Reagan's 1987 'tear down this wall' speech."
OK. To its credit, for once, the White House did not run toward the applause they're apparently still unadultered to working there and they immediately try to tell us that Biden hadn't actually meant what he told us on camera. He didn't really mean it. Any statement that begins this way is a lie. "The president's point…" OK, we can discern his point, he said it, but the president's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change. Right.
Well, that's of course, not true, but at least it's reassuring to know our policy remains the same. Neocons in D.C., of course, were highly distressed. CIA operative Rodney Faraon, for example, wrote "This would have been Biden's 'tear down this wall' moment, but for White House staffers watering down his meaning afterward." A few hours ago, Biden once again stepped in front of the microphone and reaffirmed that the words that had accidentally slipped out of his mouth over the weekend because he was mad and he has no self-control are actually officially U.S. policy.
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U.S. President Joe Biden waves as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House February 25, 2022 in Washington, DC. ( Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
NBC REPORTER, KELLY O’DONNELL: Do you believe what you said, that Putin can't remain in power? Or do you now regret saying that because your government has been trying to walk that back? Did your words complicate matters?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, yes. Three different questions. I'll answer them all. Number one, I'm not walking anything back.
"I'm not walking anything back." So, regime change in Russia is now our policy. That's what the president of the United States just told us, and as he did, he rebuked the people who worked for him, which is fine with us. They spent all week correcting statements that he makes up on the fly and hasn't thought through in any way, purely reactive.
Hey, Joe Biden, what would be the long-term effect in the United States of what you're doing? No idea. Don't have to think about the future now, when everything is suddenly at stake. There's never been recklessness at this level in the White House and yes, that includes the last president who was often attacked for being reckless. Nothing he said compares to this. Fox's Peter Doocy asked for clarification and response. Joe Biden revealed that he is completely unaware that his staff has been continuously updating American policy all week as he changes it on the fly. Watch Joe Biden:
PETER DOOCY: Are you worried that other leaders in the world are going to start to doubt that America is back if some of these big things that you say on the world stage keep getting walked back?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: What's getting walked back?
PETER DOOCY: It made it sound like, just in the last couple of days, it sounded like you told U.S. troops they were going to Ukraine. It sounded like you said it was possible the U.S. would use a chemical weapon and it sounded like you were calling for regime change in Russia and we know--
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: None of the three occurred.
PETER DOOCY: None of the three occurred?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: None of the three.
PETER DOOCY: Mr. President?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: You interpret the language that way.
What's getting walked back? To be clear, he's not fit to lead, particularly right now. Bernie Sanders scared the hell out of the banks. Democratic Party short-circuited his campaign and installed Joe Biden. Biden seemed kind of passive for a lot of voters. That was a welcome respite from the last president, who seemed kind of loud.
That's what actually happened. No one anticipated at that moment that we would be on the cusp of a war with a nuclear armed power in less than two years, but that's exactly where we are now and under those circumstances, to have someone who was literally no idea what's going on doesn't even know that he's changing longstanding policies that adults have thought through when he does it. Does scary describe that? No, it's worse.
So, Biden just said everything that he has said for the last week is true and none of it has been corrected by people who work for him. The truth is, Joe Biden has no idea. Joe Biden has no idea what his publicists say when he goes to sleep, that midway through his answer, Biden starts walking back his own comments. He does that just minutes after saying he would never walk back his own comments. "None of that occurred," Biden said. Look, it feels almost like we're being mean to the guy by quoting him, and no one wants that. No one is making fun of his age or his diminished condition, only trying to defend the country. Then moments later, Biden declared that no reasonable person would think he wants regime change in Russia.
President Biden speaks with members of the press before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, March 23, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Because it's ridiculous. Nobody believes we're going to take down, I was going, I was talking about taking down Putin. Nobody believes that.
All right. Joke's over, too much is at stake. If there was ever a time, if there was, in U.S. history, ever a time, to invoke the 25th Amendment, it is now. As Joe Biden himself put it, "For God's sakes, this man cannot remain in power," for all of our sakes.
This article was adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the March 28, 2022 edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."